A new life
by yuki-sui
Summary: When Ichigo and his friends are hit by a car on their way home, they welcome death knowing that it's just the beginning. Read and enjoy as Uryu does what no one would ever think to happen, Orihime finds a family, and Ichigo is granted some unexpected offers. Enjoy the twists and turns, and return of characters from various anime, not to mention a few surprises. CHAPTER 14
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hello all. this came to me overnight. I hope you like it and if you have be reading my crossover, Three enemies, two worlds, one war, this is like a prequel, it is the story about Ichigo, Orihime, and Uryuu before the big mission in Konoha.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own bleach**

**Jingle~end comercial**

**Chapter 1: End to Beginning**

"Ok class now remember, you have your final exams tomorrow. If you want to graduate on Saturday, i suggest you study. Dismissed!" The teacher said as the bell rang and the class packed up and left. Well, not Ichigo, he had just got back. Everyone but Orihime, Uryuu, Keigo, and Tatsuki, thought he was sound asleep at his desk. Only Orihime and Uryuu stayed to waited for him though, after saying goodbye to Tatsuki and Keigo.

Ichigo got back in his body and pretended to wake up as he flexed his muscles. "Alright, so what'd I miss" he said getting up and grabbing his bag.

"Exams are tomorrow," Uryuu stated bluntly as they started out the door. "and you Kurosaki, have yet to learn a thing all semester." he added, referring to the fact that Ichigo had to fight a hollow almost every day. Some were even arancar. Ichigo was getting stronger too, and now he could take an arancar one on one. Then again, who wouldn't get stronger after dyeing twice already, possibly three times (AN: Technically, Ichigo died when while gaining his powers back in season 1, when fighting Ullquiora in the manga when he went full hollow, and possibly when he went to save Orihime and Ullquiora jabbed him through the chest up by his heart).

Ichigo just gave him a light punch at the shoulder, "Uryuu, I only miss like 15-30 minutes when I'm out. Besides, I've been studying with Tatsuki from time to time too. I'll do fine." He reassured as they stepped out from the school onto the sidewalk and headed for Ichigo's place. They had all been planning a cramming party since the past week, and exam's were tomorrow. It would only be the three of them now though, because Chad was sick with the flu.

When they were half way there Orihime suddenly heard her stomach rumble. She blushed and gave a light giggle as the boys looked at her. "Heh, I guess I'm hungry." she admitted sweetly.

Uryuu looked across the busy street and saw an ice cream stand, " C'mon Orihime, I'll get us some ice cream." He said, smiling as they headed for the crosswalk. The two of them had been going out since the beginning of the year. When the light changed they started across the street.

Suddenly Ichigo saw a fast car driving down the open lane. "It's going to fast to stop." he thought aloud. He then dropped his bag and ran out into the street to push them out of the way. "LOOK OUT!" he shouted as he lunged at them, pushing Uryuu onto Orihime as the car hit him and skid into a turn half a second to late, causing it to topple over and have window shards and the hood of the car smash into the shocked couple.

Uryuu was still holding Orihime as they stood there in shock and Ichigo had backed up some paces before crashing his knees to the ground. Finally, Uryuu realized what was going on, especially when he heard the sirens. He looked around everywhere. Orihime was still clinging to him, her face buried in his chest which now, as well as hers, had a medium sized chain coming straight from where his heart was, and was connected to nothing. Ichigo was on his knees about a few feet from his body and in his shinigami uniform, breathing heavily. Uryuu then looked at their bodies which people were beginning stare at. He was on top of Orihime and they had a ton of various sized glass shards sticking out of them. They were in a puddle of their own blood and it looked as though his skull was cracked. He nearly threw up at the sight, and almost again at the sight of Ichigo's. He had cracked open half of his head and his legs were crushed and though he couldn't see it, he knew that because of the scenario they'd been threw and the fact that he should be in a worse condition as them, he must have some internal injuries and broken bones. He then saw three ambulances pull up and his father jump out of one of them. Ryuuken rushed over to his son's body and tried not to cry. Of course he could see them, but no one else could, he had to make it look convincing. Uryuu set Orihime aside and Ichigo got up and walked over there with him.

They knelt down by him so they could talk in a whispered tone. "Dr. Ishida, it's no use, we're..." Ichigo was cut off.

"I know, but they don't." Uryuu's father said, referring to the crowd. "I have to put on a show. Kurosaki, you should go talk to your father."

"How is he supposed to do that, he's de..." Uryuu tried to say when Ryuuken cut him off too.

"He can see him, now...just go, and Kurosaki, be sure these two get to the Soul Society." He explained as another doctor came over. It turned out Ichigo had broken his whole left side plus his spine. Orihime had merely hit her head on the pavement and had some glass in her, unfortunately one had pierced her heart, otherwise she may have lived. Uryuu however, had a cracked skull and glass everywhere, a broken arm and four broken ribs, one punctured lung and both of his legs skinned.

Ichigo could see that he was upset. He nodded and stood up, "Alright, don't worry, we'll be fine. Let's go guys." he said as Uryuu got up as well. They went over to Orihime and filled her in.

It had been silent the whole way and they had been walking for 20 minutes so far and Orihime was still kind of out of it.

"Hey Kurosaki, how does it feel to die for… what is this the forth time. Wow, I'm surprised you could die from having half your body crushed." Uryuu said, trying to make conversation.

Ichigo was glad that the silence was gone but a little insulted too, "At least thats all that happend to me. I couldn't even tell that that was your body." he countered with some rivelry humer.

They shared a brief moment of laughter before letting out a long sigh. "look, I'm sorry about all this. I..." Uryruu tried apologizing but was cut off when he heard Orihime yelp. Both of them looked over at her. One of the links on her chain was already starting to dissolve.

"Orihime!" they both shouted in unison

"Uryuu, we don't have anymore time to waste on walking, take Orihme on your back and follow me to the clinic. You can use flash step right?"

Uryuu picked up Orihime and nodded, he wanted to say that the Quincies didn't call it flash step, but now was not the time for that.

"Right then then, let's go!" Ichigo stated as they pretty much flew off toward Kurosaki clinic.

When they arrived at the clinic Orihime's chain had stopped dissolving and she was unconsciously draped over Uryuu's shoulder. They could here Karin and Ishiin arguing about something and knew that this would be difficult. Ichigo stepped up and opened the unlocked door and both he and uryuu stepped in. "Hey! Karin! Dad!" he shouted, hoping his dad really could hear him. With that, Karin, Ishiin, and even Yuzu, shot a stunned glance at them. whatever the argument was about, it stopped when they saw them.

"Ichigo! What happened?" Karrin asked as she noticed that not even Kon was with them (meaning he never put Kon in his body and had him bring it back for him) this worried her. After all, she was a smart girl.

"Forget that, what's he wearing?" Yuzu said. She might have been able to see spirits, but she still didn't know about shinigami.

Ishiin was the only one that was quiet. He walked over to him and noticed the broken chains that Uryuu an Orihime bore. Finally, he spoke, "Ichigo, you're not like this by choice, are you?"

Ichigo just shook his head no.

"That's what I thought, what happened to you guys, and where" he said again.

Ichigo stayed quiet. He had planned to explain but now, seeing his sisters' and his dad's faces, he just couldn't speek.

"It wasn't his fault, he was just trying to save us. we were hit by some drunk driver." Uryuu finally said. "My dad should have taken care of things by now, he's the one who found us. He told us that you'd be able to see us."

Karin and Yuzu started to tear up and Ishiin placed a hand on ichigo's shoulder, "It'll be okay. Besides, this is the begining of a new life, not the end. Ichigo, you've done a great job as a substitute shinigami, but now it's time for a full time job." he said, trying to cheer up his son.

"Thanks dad." Ichigo finally said, as he gave a light smile.

"Yeah, well, I'm gonna miss you guys, Rukia too. Speaking of which, she's not to happy it would seem." he said, grinning at the last part as he motioned at the open door. Rukia was standing there, half in shock, half anger, half in sadness.

"Ichigo! Why are you so stupid? No, wait I'll tell you why. It's because you're an idiot! Why did you have to go and die, all of you? Just because you guys fight Hollows and help spirits doesn't mean you have to die!" bye now she had more tears than the girls, it was as if she were at their funeral.

Ichigo walked over and embarrassed the sobbing girl, "I'm sorry, I had to do something or else, well they still died with me but I had to try." he said, trying to explain.

"Ichigo, we should probably get going." Uryuu said as Orihime woke up.

He nodded, "Yeah, you're right. Rukia, will you come with us." he said as he took out Zangetsu.

"Of course you idiot, I live there. I only came for a visit" she said as she looked over at Ishiin. "So I guess you know about me too huh?" she said seriously.

he nodded, "Yep, ever since Ichigo first met you."

"Right, than can you do me a favor and take this gigai back to Urahara please?" she ask as she separated from the gigai.

"Sure." he said and gave both her and ichigo a hug before the four of them stepped outside, opened the door to the Soul society, and proceeded on through.

**Jingle~start commercial**

**A/N: Please read and review. I hope you liked it. Might take a while for updates because my schedules crammed, but i'll try. Till next chapter, bye.**

**Arigato~ Chuu 3**


	2. the lieutenant and the brawl

**A/N: hi everyone. Sorry it took so long. You see, first my computer crashed, then I lost my flash drive. Well either way here's the chapter. Enjoy. Oh yeah and I've be watching this cool zanpakutou filler online, so when they talk to their swords and the sword has person form and sword form, that's where I got the idea. Also, I'd like to thank president Pikachu from my school's Anime club, and my editor/boyfriend, Kuro-neko kun for ideas on the uryuu brawl.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own bleach**

**Jingle: end commercial**

**Chapter 2: The lieutenant and the brawl**

It didn't take long for the four friends to pass through the Dangai, nor was it long after that they were greeted and escorted by Captain Ukitake. "It's nice to see you again Kurosaki kun, Inoue chan, Ishida kun. Rukia, thank you for getting them here." He said quietly toward the end.

"I really wish it hadn't had to be so soon." She said, only loud enough for her captain to hear. (A/N: idea from yu yu hakushou, you know how Botan said Yusuke wasn't "supposed" to die yet. Well Rukia is saying she wishes they weren't "supposed to die yet.)

He nodded at her just before looking up and smiling at Ichigo and the young couple, "In any case, I have a surprise for you three. Orihime, Uryuu, I've enrolled you both in the shinigami academy, you start tomorrow. Alongside that, your squad have already been chosen, so you can stay in the barracks."

Orihime was in a mix between happiness, joy, and confusion, and therefore so dizzy she was speechless. Uryuu on the other hand was more of a combination of frustration, intrignition (he's intrigued), annoyance, and humiliation, but of course he was also interested. Moreover however, he was mostly confused. "I don't quite seem understand, I'm a quincy, is it even allowed for me to join the academy?" he asked in a confused tone.

"Well normally it wouldn't be, however, do to certain past events, you could say you've been recruited." Juushiro replied with his usual cheery tone and smile. Uryuu just nodded in agreement.

"Wait a minute!" Ichigo said suddenly. "You said the *three* of us! What about…" he was cut off when Rukia's fist hit his jaw.

"Maybe if you'd shut up he'll tell you!" she said in that normal "put Ichigo in line" tone.

"Fine, but you didn't have to hit me." He said rubbing his jaw.

"Ichigo," Ukitake started,"you have already mastered Kendo, you have more experience and knowledge about various hollow and in konso then the average shinigami, not to mention necessary You once defeated one third seated officer, two captains, and four lieutenants. You have more spiritual pressure than most captains, and all your missing is kidou. You have been assigned to immediately become my new lieutenant do too the fact that the three empty captain positions have been filled." He explained as Ichigo fell into awe.

"That's amazing! I mean, sure I thought I'd be lieutenant at least, but just because there's no captain positions, wow!" shocked, but above all, pretty psyched.

"That's great Ichigo, I mean really amazing. You'll make a great lieutenant, I just know it." Orihime chimed as she glomped him.

"Yeah, congratulations Kurosaki." Uryuu complied as he saved him from his girlfriend's glompage.

It then seemed to be Rukia's turn to say something but not only did she look stunned, but she was staring at Ichigo I am very peculiar way. Like she had seen a ghost or something. (No pun intended) "Hmm? Rukia, what's wrong, you look like you've seen a ghost or something." Ichigo questioned with concern.

"Ichigo, do you have any idea what was wrong with that question. I mean really, what is the job for a 'shinigami' again?" Uryuu stated at his idiotic rival.

"Oh shut up! It's a figure of speech!" countered Ichigo.

Rukia snapped out of her little, let's call it a memory, and sighed," It's nothing Ichigo, congratulations." She said quietly with her head to the ground. She then walked off toward the Kuchiki manner.

"Something's wrong with her." Ichigo thought aloud.

Ukitake sighed, "Don't worry about it Ichigo, I'll talk to her."

The next day, Orihime and Uryuu began their training at the academy and Ichigo had received his lieutenants' badge.

Ichigo sat under a tree in the squad 13 training ground, admiring his badge.

"You seem pretty proud of yourself there Ichigo, I guess our rivalry is on equal terms now eh?" a familiar voice said from behind him.

"Tch, don't get cocky Renji. We _were_ equal, before the espada that is." Ichigo challenged in an "oo. Burn!" sorta way.

"Why you…! Ugh, forget it. I'm here to deliver a message, well make that two." He said, I bit agitated for a regularly arrogant lieutenant. "Captain Commander Yamamoto requested you be trained in kidou…" Ichigo cut him off

"I already know that you baka."

Renji's left eyebrow twitched slightly, "I wasn't finished! He wants you to be trained by a true kidou master, someone your familiar with, and to top it off someone whose spiritual pressure is in your range." Renji explained, annoyed at his own words. "This brings me to my second message. Captain Kuchiki would like you to know, that since the arrencar war 3 years ago, he's come to respect you as an equal as far as officers go. (as in, he sees him as another captain but still not nobility) He said if slip up during Kidou training though You'll go right back to square one."

"Let me guess, Byakuya's gonna train me in kidou right? I was wondering why you seemed so pissed. We're definitely not on equal terms of a rivalry now." Ichigo joked as he stood up and stretched. "So when do I start?"

"Noon, every other day, starting tomorrow." Renji replied with irritation in his voice. "Well aside from that, congrates on the lieutenant thing. Hey I better be headed back, tell Rukia I said hey alright." He said as he gave a casual wave and walked off.

"Yeah, I'll tell her." He said in a quiet tone, thinking how she'd been acting around him since yesterday.

**Meanwhile, with Rukia—**

-"Try to get a hold of yourself Rukia, nothing you do is going to change anything. It's like Captain Ukitake said, you've known him long enough to be able to tell the difference, what makes this any different?"- Sode no Shirayuki said, trying to calm her partner.

"The difference is that now he's a lieutenant, just like _him, _and not only that, but he's _my_ lieutenant. It's just too much." She sobbed, responding to her zanpakutou's question. Captain Ukitake had recently spoken with her about the situation, about how Ichigo was **not** Kaien, no matter the similarities, but the memories were too deep. To painful, and now that Ichigo had filled his position, literally, it hurt just to think of him, much less see him. Now she sat in her room in the barracks of squad 13, crying her eyes out as her battle partner, Sode no Shirayuki, tried to reason with and calm her.

-"Rukia, you're stronger than this. You can perform kidou nearly as well as your brother, you can hold your own against an arrencar, you even overcame the illusions of an espada whom posed as Kaien, and beat him. If you can do that, then I know you get through some small similarities."- Sode no Shirayuki encouraged with a hint of disappointment.

Rukia wiped her tears as she let the words sink in, "That's true, but they aren't small similarities, they're… pretty much all but hair color, age, name, and sword. It's impossible."

-"That's enough! Rukia, I'm trying to help you, but it seems your memories are getting the better of you. You want Ichigo to be _him. _I've done all I can to help you Rukia. Now this is all I have left. Until you confront him, you go ahead and rely on a plain sword and kidou for battle, because I've had it. That goes for conversation too."- and with those words, Sode no Shirayuki retreated back to her sword form and the room was silent.

Rukia stood up and sighed as she grabbed her sword and returned it to its sheath, "This is going to be difficult."

**That same day at the academy:**

Uyruu had just finished his first kendo and kidou classes. It really payed off when you base your fighting skills around gathering raitsu, It's pretty much kidou itself. Do to this he was placed in the advanced class. He still couldn't get over the fact however, that he, a quincy, was training to be a shinigami. This was just too much all at once.

Uryuu finally stood up and took out his bow, aiming it at a target he had carved into the seiki-seiki stone wall. What could a bit of target practice to relive stress going to hurt?

After about 50 shots he had to make a new target. In the process he overheard a couple of his classmates passing by.

"Who does he think he is, enrolling in the academy, when it's obvious he doesn't belong here?" one boy murmured to the other as they stood there shooting death glares at him.

"I know, why is he even here? Aren't quincys supposed to hate shinigami?" The younger one said in a rather stuck up tone.

"Hey I know! He's confused! He doesn't know what he is! Do you, Quincy-gami!" the older boy stated rather loudly, as he intended to be sure Uryuu heard him.

Now Uryuu may have been able to cast aside the first two comments, but no one hurts his quincy pride and gets away with it. "If you've got something to say about me or quincies, say to my face!" He said as stomped over to them and grabbed the older of the two by the collar.

"Oh please, do you honestly think a little quincy-gami like you could take us on." The boy challenged as he went to knee Uryuu in the gut.

Uryuu jumped back quickly just before jumping back at him at light speed and landing one strong punch to the jaw. "You might want to rethink that."

The older boy, whom was now bleeding on one side of his face, held one hand out to the side and the younger slapped. "tag team time." He stated as he stepped forward.

Uryuu instantly had a small sweat drop moment, "Do have any idea how cheesy that was?" he questioned.

The older slapped himself in his face. He couldn't help but agree, it was terribly cheesy.

"Tch, who cares, I'm so gonna kick your ass!" the boy said as he went for an uppercut. As he did this Uryuu stepped sideways and went for his ribs.

"Souten keshun!" shouted a familiar high pitched voice as an orange, triangular barrier appeared between them.

Uryuu turned to look at Orihime, "Uryuu, stop. We haven't been here a whole day and your already fighting." She said as she marched over to him, trying to look angry.

Uryuu sighed and lowered his fist. "Yeah, I gauss your right. I just lost my cool for a bit."

As he rubbed the blood from his cheek, the older boy just laughed "Oh wow, the poor little quincy-gami has his girlfriend fighting his battles for him." Unfortunately for him Orihime had just brought down her shield and with Uryuu's speed and reflexes he landed another punch right to the now broken nose.

"you might want to rethink that. The barrier was the only thing holding me back." And with that he walked of with Orihime to their next lesson.

**Jingle: start commercial**

**A/N: well I hope you liked it. I also hope there isn't to much OOCness. Sorry if there is. Please give feedback and reviews of all types. PS. I already started brainstorming chapter 3 & 4. If you have any ideas let me in. if I use them you shall get credit.**

**Arigato**

**Chuu~ 3**


	3. Kidou, Flowers, and Ink

**A/N: I'm back! First I'd like to say thanks for waiting and I'm sorry for being late. Next I'd the to announce that I wrote all of this on a plain, thank you 5 hour first class flight. I'd like to give full credit to and thank miss ****Thebleachdiary ****for the awesome IchiRuki idea. Well on with the show.**

**Disclaimer: Tite owns bleach, not me.**

**Jingle! End commercial!**

**Chapter 3**

**Kidou, Flowers, and Ink. **

10 months had gone by since they arrived in the soul society. Uryuu was still getting into Brawls with the other students, and Orihime was still breaking them up (not to mention wierding everyone out with her strange appetite). Along with this, they were both advancing faster than most students, mainly kidou for Orihime, and were told that they would be graduating later that day. Ichigo had finally learned to control his raitsu, and had, by now, memorized all of his kidou spells and chants. This was mainly thanks to Byakuya's strict training, Momo's study sessions, and a few lectures from both Ogihci and Zangetsu. But the thing that kept throwing him off balance was Rukia. She always seemed so sad lately, and she would only speak to him when giving reports or answering brief questions, never even said "hi" anymore. He was starting to think she was still upset about what happened that day, or was it that he was her lieutenant now and not just a substitute shinigami?

-what is actually happening at the time-

CRASH! Without warning, a high powered shakahou hit the seki-seki wall not even a centimeter beside Ichigo, who barely managed to dodge. He glanced down at his shoulder and noticed his badge had fallen to the ground. If it hadn't been there his shoulder would most likely have been burned.

"What the hell!? Are you trying to kill me!?" he shouted as he grabbed his badge and perfectly dodged the next attack.

"Pay attention and that won't happen. Now stop letting your mind wander and show me the results of your training." Byakuya replied just as he fired a swift and well targeted soukatsui.

Ichigo quickly retorted to shunpo as he came up behind his kidou master "Bakudou 1! Sai!" he chanted as he attempted to paralyze Byakuya. It worked, for about 5 seconds, but that was all it took for Ichigo to perform a spirit chant and fire a fully charged byakurai at the recovering captain. The shot took him by surprise, piercing and burning his upper chest on the right side, and was it so powerful it nearly knocked him unconscious.

Byakuya swiftly unsheathed his zanpakutou and shoved it in the ground, leaning on it for support. "heh, I never thought I'd say this, but well done Kurosaki. You've finally mastered kidou. This has been your last training session." with that he collapsed as Ichigo caught him before he could hit the ground.

after a few minutes of shunpo, Ichigo arrived at the squad 4 barracks with Byakuya on his back. Isane was the first to find him, and quickly got him inside for medical treatment.

Once inside and, Byakuya was on a hospital bed, Captain Unohana walked in with her natural, never changing smile. (Honestly, I think it's glued on her face XD) "Well this is a surprise, your usually the one getting treated Kurosaki kun." she said as she began healing the unconscious captain.

Ichigo sat down and messaged his left shoulder (the badge being placed back on before he left) and hissed at a small pang on the same side, just below his ribs. He remembered only then, that though he dodged the attacks, they still grazed him enough to inflict damage; not to mention the raitsu level made it even worse. "Heh, I might not need treatment, but some ointment and painkillers oughta be enough." they just looked at him with a "huh?" kind of face, and he remembered that he was mentioning human world medicines, "Never mind, but really, my injuries aren't that big. I'll just have Rukia help me out or something " He said, half lying. He knew Rukia wasn't speaking to him, why would she heal him. No, he was just going to use his training in kidou to heal his side as well as he could, and use message therapy on his shoulder.

"Alright then, so I'm guessing you passed?" She asked, due to the fact he beat Byakuya in their kidou match (every time they fought each other with kidou it was like an exam, he would pass if he won).

"Yeah, he said this was the last session, so I guess I passed." He replied, still rubbing his shoulder.

By now, Byakuya was starting to regain consciousness. He turned his head to look at Ichigo, "Kurosaki, I'll send the report on the results of your training. Inoue chan and Ishida san should be getting their zanpakutou soon, you should go congratulate them." He said quietly.

* * *

Orihime stood before central 46 (I brought them back because there needs to be one, so they're new) as she went through final stage of becoming a shinigami, obtaining her zanpakutou.

"-Inoue Orihime, It is time for you to show us your zanpakutou.-" someone, yet impossible to tell which one, said from central 46.

After that Orihime saw a white flash in front of her and the next thing she knew, she was in a field of blue flower under a day time sky, fill with both shooting and plain stars. "Wow...! This place is beautiful" she said with awe.

She then heard a high giggle from behind her. She turned see what looked like herself wearing a mixture of Ayame, Shun' o, Baigon, Lily, Hinagiku, and Tsubaki's outfits. "Eep! Your me!" she squeaked as the "clone" giggled again.

"Orihime, you're so silly. You've always been silly." she laughed as she picked some flowers, well actually she brought up her hands and a blue bouquet flew into them. "Orihime, I'm your Zanpakutou. By the way, thank you for the compliment but this 'place' is 'your' inner world, I just live here." With every few words, her voice changed. Even a guy's voice was thrown in a few times.

"Really? I made this place? WOW! So what's your name? What can you do?" Orihime babbled in amazement, luckily, her zanpakuto could make out what was said.

"That's right, you made both me, and this place possible." the zanpakutou replied. She then threw the flowers in front of her and let them float there, "As for what I do." she made a giant circle in front of her with her hand. With this, the stars in the sky came shooting down at her (she is attacking herself) "Attack with stars made of glass shards," she said in an arrogant guy's voice as she was wounded greatly by the shooting stars, "Heal with pollen from flowers," she added with two voices, one girl, one boy, as the floating flowers spun and pollen flew onto her, healing her wound and mending her ripped clothing, "guard by connecting the flower with kidou vines (they can't be cut easily and the flowers can't be spinning)." Three more voices spoke at once and one was another girl, Orihime was catching on to who they belonged to. The flowers stopped spinning, and the pollination stopped as various kidou vines connected the flowers forming a shield as the zanpakutou attacked herself again. This time however, the stars failed at the attack and retreated.

"Awesome!" Orihime squeed, "So what can I call you, wait I know! Shuhinabailiyamebaki!" She said as the zanpakutou let the flowers fall and placed the stars back in the sky. (It's basically the names of all her shun shun rika smushed together; Orihime would do something like that right?)

The zanpakutou giggled again, "Well, your sort of right, but no. Orihime, my name is Hoshihana. Now, take out your katana and answer me this, then say my name. What is my power, what is the main thing my powers can do, that I do?" Hoshihana said in Tsubaki's voice at the end.

Orihime knew what was about to happen, and had heard zanpakutou releases so many times that she knew just how to answer. She needed to answer as if it were a command. Quietly she spoke as she unsheathed her sword, "Guard us, and fight, Hoshihana!" and before she knew it, she saw another flash and she was back in central 46 with flowers floating in front of her and shooting stars whizzing by all around her. She looked down and saw that she was pretty badly wounded.

"-Inoue Orihime, well done. The results of your work and demonstration shall be recorded. Now please sheath your zanpakutou and retrieve your shihakusho after which you will learn your position and squad. Aside from that matter, you are still injured from your demonstration; please stop by the squad four barracks as well. — with that, central 46 remained silent and Orihime sheathed Hoshihana, bowed, and left.

* * *

**What central 46 was seeing—-**

Orihime stood before central 46 (I brought them back because there need to be one, so they're new) as she went through final stage of becoming a shinigami, obtaining her zanpakutou.

"-Inoue Orihime, It is time for you to show us your zanpakutou. -" Someone, yet impossible to tell which one, said from central 46.

After that Orihime's eyes blanked as she slowly removed her katana from her waste. She then whispered quietly as she created a giant circle in front of her with her sword in her hand. "Guard us, and fight, Hoshihana!"

The sword instantly shattered into tiny glass shards, which began to shoot, spin, a scramble everywhere; resembling millions of shooting stars surrounding her. As this happened, the hand guard became over a dozen blue flowers that flew out of her hands and floated in front of her.

With a flick of her wrist, every star flew straight at her, cutting straight through and wounding her greatly.

She then twirled the hilt in her hand. When she did this the floating flowers spun and pollen flew onto her, healing her wounds and mending her ripped clothing.

She then put both out in front after flicking her wrist once more, and held the hilt with both hands. The flowers stopped spinning, and the pollination stopped as various kidou vines connected the flowers forming a shield as Orihime attacked herself again. This time however, the stars failed at the attack and retreated.

Suddenly she seemed to focus back in on reality. She looked down and saw that she was pretty badly wounded.

"-Inoue Orihime, well done. The results of your work and demonstration shall be recorded. Now please sheath your zanpakutou and retrieve your shihakusho after which you will learn your position and squad. Aside from that matter, you are still injured from your demonstration, please stop by the squad four barracks as well.- with that, central 46 remained silent and Orihime sheathed Hoshihana, bowed, and left.

-Afterward

After receiving her uniform, Orihime had been told that she had been put in seat 3 of squad 4 (that other guy was demoted 2 seats because he was useless). After a quick costume change into her new uniform, Orihime began to make her way to the squad barracks.

After about 10 minutes, she arrived at the entrance, only to see Ichigo walking out. "Ichigo! Guess what!?" She squeed as she hopped up and down like crazy.

Ichigo cautiously reached out to place his hands on her shoulder, he **really** needed her to stop hopping, and for one major reason. Once successful he added a small amount of force, causing her to stop _bouncing_. "Orihime, congratulations on making squad four, and even more for graduating." He said with soft yet cheerful smile. He then remove his hands and went back to rubbing his shoulder.

"How did you know what squad I made?" Orihime asked, completely forgetting about the difference between squad 4 uniforms and basic uniforms.

Ichigo tried not to laugh, but never the less a small chuckle escaped his throat. "Orihime, your uniform makes it obvious. That pouch you have slung around your back is part of your uniform right? Well only squad 4 wears those." He reminded her.

"Oh, I forgot about that." She admitted. She then noticed that Ichigo was in pain, as his expression began to flicker from okay to fine to pain to fine to pain to fine. "Ichigo, is something wrong with your shoulder." She asked as she watched him message the area.

"Don't worry about it Orihime, I'll be fine. I just got a few burns during kidou training." Ichigo explained, "It's nothing I can't fix on my own, Hey! Didn't you hear me I said I'm fine." But Orihime was already half way done do to her placing Souten Kishun over his entire left (injured) side.

"Ichigo, this is my job. Besides, I want to help." She said, smiling, as she finished up.

Ichigo gave a light sigh and smiled at her, "Well thanks Orihime. I appreciate that."

Just then Uryuu arrived to join the party. However, he was carrying a passenger on his back. Once again, he completely pummeled a classmate for mocking him, but this time Orihime hadn't been there to stop him from causing any serious damage, therefore the kid was in need of medical care. "Orihime, I thought you might have been assigned to this division. Look, I know you could probably heal him faster then anyone else could but I'm going take him inside for treatment instead. I saw you help Ichigo here just now, and I can tell you're tired from your Zanpakutou exam, congratulations by the way." He said as he gave her a small peck on the forehead.

Orihime blushed a bit, "Um, okay, then I'll help take him in. I need to check in with Captain Unohana anyway. Bye Ichigo." She said as they made their way inside. "Oh, and congrats to you too Uryuu, what squad are you?"

"Ten, seat 3." He replied as they left.

It was then that Ichigo remembered he had two days worth of paperwork, untouched, waiting for him on his desk.

Eight hours later—

Ichigo was on his last stack of paperwork. He had been working non-stop for eight hours and was almost ready to just give up. _~This has got to be the worst part of my entire… new life. _~ He thought to himself as a long drawn out yawn came upon him. He was so tired that when he grabbed the next form, the entire stack was knocked to the floor. "Damn!" he exclaimed as bent over to pick them up, unfortunately; being so tired, he bumped the desk. Do to this, the ink bottle on the corner of said desk fell over, spilling into and dying his hair black. As the ink dripped from his bangs he noticed what had happened. He reached up and behind his head, and when he looked at his hand he saw that it was pitch black. "Well this is just great! First the forms fall, now my hairs black!" He shouted angrily as he picked up the rest of the forms and stacked them back on his desk. He then went to wash the ink out of his hair as best he could.

When he got back to his office, he sat down and got back to work. Hopefully he'd be done soon, because he was utterly and completely pissed off. Though the ink was washed out, his hair was now completely black with a small brownish hue due to the natural orange color.

He was just finishing the last form when the door opened. It was Rukia. She had finally gathered up the confidence to confront him, to tell him about her former lieutenant and why she had been avoiding him. However, when he looked up at her and she saw his familiar smile, the badge on his shoulder, and of course, his new brownish black hair; only one word escaped her sad lips, "Kaien." She whispered, yet loud enough for him to hear, just before running out the door in tears.

"Rukia! Wait!" he shouted as he got up from his desk and ran out after her. It wasn't that long until he ran into a shocked Captain Ukitake, who stopped him from going any further.

"Ichigo, what happened?" he asked, mostly referring to his hair.

Ichigo just sighed, "If your talking about my hair, I bent over to pick something up and the ink spilled over into my hair. But if you mean 'why am I chasing Rukia?', than its because… well I'm not exactly sure. She came in, and it looked like she wanted to tell me something, but as soon as I looked up she started to tear up. And just before she ran out, I could have sworn I heard her say something. I think it was 'Kaien' or something." He explained as Ukitake's face became sympathetic.

Juushiro let out a soft sigh and placed a hand on Ichigo's shoulder. "It makes sense. Kaien was my last lieutenant, and she looked up to him, as if he were, well another older brother. The thing is, you resemble him in more ways than one. It's the reason for her actions around you lately, and now your eye color is the only difference." He explained lightly.

Ichigo's eyes drifted downward to the left. "I see. That would explain it." He said as he thought about how he could fix this. "Thanks for telling me. Um excuse me Captain but there's something I need to do. The paperwork's finished by the way." He said as he waved and walked off.

**Jingle! Start commercial!**

**A/N: thanks for reading. Yes it's a cliffy, and I love it. Tell about any ideas you may have. Read review and tell others. Rate assist even flame. Next chap will be up withen a week. Promise. Kuro kun has been tickleing me to get it done as he said he would, and honestly I'm sorta letting him**

**Kuro: she stole my glasses**

**See? Told ya. Anywho. Be back ASAP! XD ja ne!**

**ARIGATO **

**CHUU 3**


	4. surprises and sake

**A/N: Bankai writer style! ****Well on with the show. Btw I have updated this to match canon a bit better.**

**Disclaimer: Tite Kubo owns bleach, not me.**

**Jingle! End commercial!**

**Chapter 4**

**Surprises and Sake**

It had been at least an hour since Ichigo started his research. He had been researching data on former lieutenant Kaien. So far, he was drawing a blank. _' Sometimes I wish things would just do what needs to be done about themselves, by themselves_.' He thought to himself as he pulled out another book.

This time when he flipped through the pages, he ran into a page with a picture that was nearly identical to himself. Beneath it read:

Deceased

Former lieutenant Kaien Shiba

Squad 13

And just below that was his bio, which included how he died

He didn't have a need to read more, he was already in shock and sympathy. He was starting to understand why Rukia had been acting the way she was, why Ganju hated him when they first met.

He looked at the next page; it was Kaien's family tree. Blacked out pictures and regular pictures. Deceased and living. Connected, as siblings were Kukaku, Ganju, and Kaien. Along with that was his wife, Miyako Shiba. Above were what Ichigo assumed were his parents. Not really sure why he was bothering with looking at the Shiba family tree Ichigo nearly closed the book when he spotted a familiar face and to his surprise, his name was Ishiin Shiba, former captain of squad 10. He REALLY didn't need to know anymore now, the rest all seemed obvious.

"YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!" he shouted as he nearly fainted. He couldn't believe it, not only was he related to Kaien Shiba, but his father was a former Captain. He took a deep breath to get a hold of himself, "Okay, well, I guess that explains a few things. Why my family is spiritually aware, why my ol'man never questioned me when I came to the soul society, how he could see me. I mean sure Ishida san said that I got my spiritual powers from my dad, but I didn't think he meant it was because he was a shinigami….AND A CAPTAIN?! It also explains why I look like Kaien." He said when he had calmed down, as he counted off on his fingers.

Ichigo sighed, as he grabbed the book and placed it back on the shelf. He then flexed his now cramped, stiff, and aching muscles and joints, began to head back to his quarters in the squad 13 barracks.

When he arrived, he found that Captain Ukitake was waiting for him, and to his surprise; so was an unsure Rukia. "Ichigo, would you mind if we talked to you about something. I already have tea made." He said, polite and casual as usual. Ichigo nodded and gazed over at Rukia with eyes full of sympathy. She said nothing. "Alight, let's go then."

A few minutes after arriving at the Captain's quarters ( X) ) they began the discussion. "Rukia, I believe you have something to tell Kurosaki kun." Juushiro stated before sipping his tea.

Rukia slowly look up at Ichigo and her eyes went into deep sadness and confusion. She was looking straight at him, but she didn't see Ichigo, no, not one bit of her was seeing Ichigo now, and it was painful; she was seeing her beloved lieutenant, Kaien Shiba. She gritted her teeth and looked away, "I'm sorry…I just…can't." she muttered between heavy breaths.

This time Ukitake had sympathy on his face, "I'm sorry Rukia, you said you were ready to tell him, so…" Ichigo cut in.

"It's alright Juushiro, I already know what's wrong. Rukia, I'm so sorry about what happened between you and Kaien. I'm sorry that I've brought you so much pain because I look like him." He said softly as looked the tears in her eyes. "Just try to remember, I'm not him, I'm Ichigo, but I will try to be a wonderful lieutenant. And don't worry, the ink will fade and my hair will be orange again in no time, I promise." He added, wiping away one of her tears with the pad of his thumb. He then leaned in and gave her a kiss on the forehead. Rukia blinked and looked up at him, this time, she only saw Ichigo, but she still couldn't smile.

Ukitake put his cup down. "Kurosaki kun, where exactly did you get this information?" He asked with suspicion though he was almost sure he knew the answer.

Ichigo looked up at Ukitake, "I was curious and I needed to know why Rukia was avoiding me, so I went to the library to do some research. That's how I found out. It turns out he was my cousin, on my dad's side. Hey, did you know my dad was a captain?" He said, adding that last part out of the blue.

Rukia looked shocked but slowly nodded, she was mainly shocked about the first part. Ukitake however, just sighed, "Yes, I knew that. Genryusai sensei, Soi-fon, Unohana, Kuchiki sama, Kumomora, Shunsui, Kenpachi, Kurosutchi, Hitsugaya, and even Urahara and Yoruichi san, we all knew." He then smiled at him.

"I see, so what happened?" Ichigo asked as he hugged Rukia to try to comfort her. She was starting to calm down a little.

Juushiro took a small sip before saying, "I'm sorry Kurosaki kun, but that's not my place to say, but it was quite a noble thing he did"

Ichigo sighed, "It's alright. Hey, I'm going take Rukia back to her place." He said as he stood up, carrying the now sleeping Rukia.

"Alright then, Good night Kurosaki kun." Ukitake said as Ichigo left.

When he arrived at the Kuchiki manner and took Rukia to her room, he half surprised and a bit scared to see Byakuya waiting for him in the hallway. "Would you mind explaining to me why you're doing here Kurosaki." He said in a low, stern, and stoic voice.

Ichigo flinched as he realized what his current situation was, "It's not what you think… I… I was just bringing her home. She fell asleep back at the barracks and…" Ichigo cut himself off as he yawned. It had been a long day and he had yet to have any rest. Byakuya realized this, for not only did he know that lieutenant deal with mounds of paperwork (he gives it to Renji as punishment), which Ichigo is horrible at, but he had given him his kidou exam from 5:00 to 10:00 that morning. "Sorry, I guess I should get back to the barracks." Ichigo apologized, which he rarely did to the stuck up noble. This was more than enough proof that he was beyond tired.

"Kurosaki, there's an empty room down the hall. You may stay here for the night if you wish." Byakuya invited, unexpectedly. Ichigo was stunned, was this great, noble, Kuchiki, captain, head of his family, and stuck up, actually offering hospitality.

"Um…alright… thanks Byakuya." Ichigo said after blinking 2 or 3 times and heading for the specified room.

Byakuya had never appreciated Ichigo's way of speaking to him, but he was also not one to make a scene. He had also been paying close attention to his sister's actions, main around Ichigo, and how she spoke when he was mentioned in conversations. He was well aware of the fact that Ichigo resembled Kaien. Now as he saw Ichigo's ink-stained hair, he could tell that Rukia must be feeling horrible at the moment. Byakuya looked into his sister's room to check on her, just as he thought, she was crying in her sleep, as she was most likely having a horrible nightmare about **that** night.

**Meanwhile—**

"Woo hoo! Go Ishida!" Matsumato cheered as she waved a nearly empty sake bottle in the air.

Once again, Uryu was in a brawl, this time in the squad ten barracks with the seat 8 officer. "Shut up Matsumoto!" Whack! Another kick to his opponent. "You had bet… better watch it or…I'm gonna…!" he began to threaten when he got a punch to the left check, knocking his glasses crooked, as well as knocking him off balance. Uryu's eyes widened as he quickly covered his mouth and gagged. With that he kneed him "_where it hurts_" and elbowed the back of his head when he keeled over, knocking him out cold.

"What's going on here?!" Came the voice of a rather angry captain as he stepped into the room.

"Oh, hello captain." The buzzed lieutenant said as she took another swig of saké, "we were just celebrating Ishida's graduation."

Uryuu flopped on the cushion in the room and glared at Matsumoto, his face beat red. "y..you mean…you g..gave me sake… as…soon as…(gag) as soon as I got hear." He slurred as he laid his head down on the table.

"Oh details, details. It's a party. Come join us captain." Matsumoto said as she threw the sake bottle at the prodigy, who dodged.

Hitsugaya's eye twitched and spoke, no, shouted his famous line, "MATSUMOTO! Paperwork, Office, NOW! No Sake!" he was so angry he had his hand on Hyorinmaru. Matsumoto freaked and ran straight for her office. He then looked at the drunken quincy and the unconscious 8th seat. He noticed that he had had no more then one glass, and it wasn't even empty. Once again, his eye twitched, "Uryu, you are never to drink again."

**Jingle! Start commercial!**

**A/N: LOL. Uryu can't hold his liquer. thanks for reading. sry about OOCness. Tell about any ideas you may have. Read review and tell others. Rate assist even flame. Picture for chappy on my profile.**

**ja ne!**

**ARIGATO **

**CHUU 3**


	5. Squads

**A/N: Gah! So sorry. 2 eng classes. Proficiancies. Bf trouble. Long chap. Some new characters will be nameless but only so you can gauss. Your hint is that they are deceased charas from naruto. And squad 13 has two from another similar anime to bleach. PS. Sorry about facts, chapter in the manga are comeing out faster then I type. Anyway. BANKAI! Auther style;)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own bleach naruto or the anime the the last two are from or the characters **

**Jingle—end commercial **

**Chapter4- Squads**

The next morning when Ichigo woke up he was surprised to see a tray of food (high quality) on the table in the room. Not only that, but it was still hot. It was then that he remembered he was at the Kuchiki residence. He went over to where the food was and sat down to eat, but noticed a letter just beside the plate.

Kurosaki,

Please meet me in the garden once you finish your meal. There is something I need to speak to you about- concerning Rukia.

Don't be late,

Byakuya

Ichigo sighed, "Well, at least he respects me; sort of." He then grabbed his chopsticks and began eating, "itadakimasu."

The Garden-

Byakuya sat on the wooden pathway which connected the garden to the manner. "You're late." He said calmly as Ichigo walked up to sit beside him.

"Yeah, well, you never set a specific time," he said with only a small amount of arrogance.

Byakuya glared at him for a split second, but let it go when he decided to get down to business. "Ukitake tells me you've found out about your father," he began as a few sakura petals flew by.

Ichigo sighed. "Yeah, I found out he was captain of squad ten, and I found out that I'm related to Kaien Shiba through him," he confessed as his eyes drifted to the side and his expression fell. Byakuya noticed this.

"I take it you know what happened?" he questioned in a more quiet, yet still calm, tone. Ichigo just nodded. Byakuya went on, "Last night, Rukia cried in her sleep, and when I saw her this morning, it was as if she had just dried her tears."

Ichigo bit his teeth together and shut his eyes tight, it was his fault she had cried through the night, and it pained him to hear it. "I…" he began but he was cut off.

"Ichigo," Byakuya said suddenly. It took him by surprise. Never had Byakuya called him by name. Ichigo looked over at him. Byakuya continued, "How much do you care about Rukia?" Oh yes, a stunning question indeed.

Ichigo swallowed before regaining his, well what little he had, composure. "W…what do you mean?"

"Just as I said, how much do you care about her?" Byakuya said again as more petals flew by.

Ichigo couldn't believe what he was hearing, and was Byakuya actually considering him an equal? "More than life." He answered without thinking.

Byakuya nodded, "I see, in that case, you're welcome to stay here if you wish." He said as he stood up to leave. "Try not to do anything that should make me change my mind…" and with that, he left.

Ichigo was taken aback by the invitation; it was obvious what Byakuya meant now. He was basically saying "Do you love Rukia?", "In that case, you are welcome to live here.", and "If you do anything that might disgrace the Kuchiki name or hurt Rukia, you will not only be back in the barracks, but we will be back at square one and you will stay away from Rukia". Yeah, it was obvious. Ichigo sighed and decided it was time to get to work.

Meanwhile—

The Kuchiki house wasn't only one with changes. Recently, the squads were gaining new members, and I don't mean Orihime and Uryu. Not only were they new, but they were strong, and their fighting style was similar to that of a ninja. Well seven of them that is. Two were intelligent beyond all reason and often argued among each other.

Squad 2-

Squad two had obtained a new lieutenant and Omadai was knocked down to seat 3, commander of the detention squad. He was a young boy with a feminine face, somewhere along the lines of 15. His long black hair was tied up in a bun with a long bang on either side of his face, each tied at the end. He had told Soi Fon that he preferred the stealth force uniform over the shihakushou.

At the moment he was up against an escaped prisoner, and a dangerous one at that. "Please come quietly, I do not wish to kill you, but if you should proceed to struggle, I will have no choice," he said in a soft and calm tone of voice.

"Tch, how are you lieutenant anyway? You're only a child," the arrogant prisoner said as he drew a small blade and went for the boy's throat.

Once hit, the boy seemed to vanish, as he appeared a few yards behind the man. It was no ordinary shunpo, no, he was faster than shunpo. "The human eye cannot track my movements…" the new lieutenant said in that same neutral voice.

"Is that so? Perhaps I should show you," Half of a hollow mask formed over his face and his blade grew to that of full length katana as his raitsu got stronger, "Why they locked me up on such high security." (Note: he has not been out long and right now only squad 2 is after him.)

"I see, so you're part hollow, or do you merely posses' hollow abilities? No matter, I didn't want to kill you, but it seems I have no choice." The lieutenant held out his sword, diagonally in front of his face, "Deceive, Hyosenbon." He announced as the Zanpakutou vanished and in its place, he was wearing aqua green combat gloves, which matched his fingernails, unseen toenails, hair ties, bun cover, and eyes. Attached to the gloves were four frozen senbon each. He threw the eight senbon out and each stopped in midair in random yet specified places. It wasn't long after that each senbon formed an icy mirror. The positioning made a sort of dome shape around the prisoner.

"That! That's your zanpakutou!? What a joke!" the man laughed as he charged at the boy, but before he could get even three steps, the rookie lieutenant was gone. He quickly turned to check his blindside, and gasped when he saw him, not reflected, but merged inside the mirror. "Ha! You think you can scare me? You're out of ammo!" He mocked hysterically as he looked around and saw the boy reflected in every mirror. He felt something brush passed him and out of instinct he turned and fired a cero out of the tip of his blade straight at the first mirror he saw. Just before the mirror was hit, the lieutenant vanished and the cero merged with the mirror and shot back at him from the other seven, knocking him unconscious.

The mirrors broke and the zanpakutou was once again a katana. The rookie walked over to him. "You're lucky I wasn't ordered to kill you." And with that, he picked up the man's body and made his way to the maggot's nest.

Squad 3-

3 years had passed since the Winter war and the empty squad captain seats were filled a few years back. The squad three captain was actually quite cheery and everyone seemed to enjoy his company, that includes Izuru Kira, however he was always caught off guard by the captain's fox like grin. It always made him think of Gin Ichimaru.

At the current moment, he and his new Captain were up against a Gillian. Both of them were in Shikai already and Kira was growing weary.

"Kira, stand down," the blonde captain said as his perky voice became more stern and serious. Kira looked up at his Captain's face. His Ocean blue eyes were narrow and focused, and he was holding his Tri-blade kunai like zanpakutou in an offensive position, "Let me finish him."

Kira nodded and backed off. The menos had been hit by Wabisuke once but somehow it was still standing, and Kira had been hit by a cero.

"Shall we then?" and in a flash of yellow, the captain was gone, and a split second after, he was behind the Gillian who was now missing an arm.

ROAR! The menos screeched as it flailed about, charging another cero.

"Ugh!" the Captain had been hit by the flailing hollow, "Well at least it's not as bad as the fox." He then sheathed his zanpakutou and held his hand to the side. Out of nowhere, a spinning, blue ball of energy, not kidou, not raitsu, but pure energy, formed in the palm of his hand.

"What is that?" Kira said, upon seeing what he suspected was his Captain secret weapon for the first time.

The menos fired the cero straight at Kira, managed to just barely dodge.

"Hey ugly!" the Captain shouted, getting the gillian's attention. It turned its face toward the energy wielding Captain. "It's been awhile since I last used this, I'm a little rusty. In fact, my son's better at it then I am. But It'll work on you!" and in another flash of yellow, he rammed the spinning energy ball into the hollow's face. The Captain then landed beside Kira, perky once more with a fox grin on his face. "Let's just keep that our little secret." He said as the menos vanished.

Kira, once again, caught off guard by the captain's grin, just nodded in agreement.

Squad 4-

It was Orihime's second day on squad 4 and she was already wierding everyone out. Everyone that is, except for a young girl who looked about 16 or 17 but in reality was in her twenties. She had light brown eyes and short matching hair with a strand on either side, held at the end with red clips. She also had a little red rectangle on each cheek. She was the new tenth seat of squad four and she followed Orihime around like a little lost puppy.

"Orihime Sempai, wait for me." She called as she stumbled after the carrot topped air head (loll).

Orihime turned and caught her young disciple. "Careful. Hey, I was gonna get some lunch. Do you want some?" she offered as she helped her up.

"Of course. C'mon let's go." The tenth seat said as ran to get some lunch.

When they got back, they sat down and began to eat a meal, consisting of bananas, wasabi, and carrots. "Itadakimasu!" they chorused just as got to eating.

"This is so good sempai; I wish my friends were here to try it." The brunette said as she remembered her old team from when she was alive.

Just then, a very tired forth seat, known as Hanataro appeared. "Um, hello. Excuse me Orihime chan, lieutenant matsumoto wanted me to ask you if you'd like to join her on a girl's day out or something." He said as he eyed the strange meal.

Orihime chirped up, "Sure! It sounds like fun." She said as she finished her food and stood up.

"I'll go too!" the little follower said as she did the same, and they both ran out.

Squad 5—

Squad five was still going through adjustments. Lieutenant Momo Hinamori was still edgy about trusting her new captain, Ame Shigure.

Captain Shigure was actually a kind and gentle spirit (no pun intended) with no intention of betrayal. In fact, she despised Aizen and believed the position to be cursed, therefore, she wore her captain's haori, sleeves draped over shoulders and tied in front. Her long black hair, tied up in white ribbon, Chinese butterfly style. Two long bangs, one on either side, and some cut short and neat in the middle. She had dark violet eyes that were never uncaring. Ame had looked up to and adored Byakuya Kuchiki her whole life, ever since she first saw him, when she lived in the Rukan district.

At the moment she was tracking down a rather strong hollow with Momo and her third seat. He was about in his twenties. He had medium length brown hair covered by a blue bandanna tied in back with two small bangs peeking out between his eyes, which had constant dark circles beneath them. Like Ukitake, he coughed frequently.

Ame stopped dead in her tracks, "Stop!" she said as she held her arm out to halt them. "Do you feel that?"

Momo gasped "that raitsu is off the charts."

"It has to be a menos." The third seat said before coughing a few times.

"No, it's an adjueches." Ame specified as she drew her sword and focused her eyes on where the hollow was coming from.

RAWR! The menos landed a few yards in front of them. "I'm going to kill you all, shinigami!" the hollow yelled as he took a swipe at them.

Each member of the team quickly drew their zanpakutou and split.

"Split, and soar! Kazeenzuru!" Ame's zanpakutou split into two blades in the shape of angel wings with no feathers, and a white ribbon connecting them in back.

"Snap! Tobiume!" Momo said, releasing her zanpakutou as well.

"Survive, Tsukiken Mae" The release of the third seat made the sword curve into a thin, crescent shape. "Captain Shigure, behind you!" he then warned, just before coughing a bit.

Ame glanced over her shoulder and there was the hollow, ready and swiping once more. She pivoted quickly to her right and blocked with her left blade, which was grabbed by the hollow.

Suddenly, two explosions hit the menos' back. "Don't think this means I trust you, I'm just doing my job." Momo said to her Captain just as she sent another blast that way with Tobiume.

"You'll pay for that pipsqueak!" the hollow bellowed as he readied a cero aimed at the petite lieutenant.

Ame quickly threw her right blade around the adjueches and caught it again as the ribbon bond the two of them. "Momo! Run!" she half shouted half commanded to the young girl. She then glanced at the third seat with narrow eyes.

He nodded and held his sword in a backward, shinobi style way as his stance changed to that of an assassin. "I apologize in advance should I end…" he began

"I'll make it so just shut up and attack already!" She always got like this when she was nervous.

"Hai! Crescent blade dance!" he confirmed and then announced as dashed straight at them, inner crescent out (blade part), and cut straight through.

As planned, Ame returned Kazeenzuru to its normal state and shunpoed away just before getting caught in the attack.

"Captain," *cough cough* "something's not right. It was too easy." The third seat said, and then coughing again.

"I agree. I believe they wanted us to win. That adjueches wasn't even at 50% of his raitsu." Ame was deep in thought now. 'Why would a menos of that level hold back, and an arrogant one at that? If I were that hollow I'd go all out, especially on…' That's when it hit her "That's it! Someone's controlling them again! Whoever it is, is trying to learn about us, our ability's, specialties, weaknesses." She explained

"If that's the case, then we need to tell Captain Commander Yamamoto right away." Momo chirped. She had come back once the hollow was gone.

The other two nodded and they set of.

Squad 6—

While the other squads dealt with their new members, Byakuya had put Renji in charge of their new third seat.

Unlike the others, he had just joined that day. The young man was 17 or 18, or somewhere near there. He had long raven black hair, tied back at his waist. In contrast, he had raven black eyes. For some unknown reason, he wore a bandage style headband that covered his whole forehead.

"Alright kid, listen up." Renji said in his normal arrogant tone, as he walked into the room to greet the young man. "My name is Renji Abarai, lieutenant of squad six."

The third seat bowed "Pleasure to meet you Lieutenant Abarai. My name is…"

"Save it, I already know your name." Renji cut in, sounding annoyed. "Now listen up new guy. Being third seat means you'll most likely be sent on missions with the Captain and me. A word of advice, don't get in his way and never argue. Oh, and be careful should you ever interact with Rukia, and I'm not just saying that because she's the Captain's sister."

"No need to worry Lieutenant, I'll be fine." He assured him, thinking those he'd left behind. He knew very well how it felt to be constantly worried about a family member.

"Right then, time for training." Renji said as he headed out and motioned for the other to follow.

The young new-comer stood and followed Renji to the training ground.

Once they arrived Renji immediately drew his sword. "Now ROAR! Zabimaru!" he declared, releasing his snake-like zanpakutou. "Alright kid, let's see what you've got!" he challenged with a passion for battle in his eyes.

The third seat nodded, "See again, Byakugan." He announced in a hushed, calm to as his zanpakutou vanished and his eyes became pure white. He stood in a strange battle stance, one arm gently bent back behind his head, the other stretched down in front to the ground. His knees kept bent in a loose yet firm position as was his back "Lieutenant, please don't hold back.".

Renji took notice of the boy's strange stance, was he planning on using hakudo? He couldn't see the other's shikai, however, the stance he was in seemed to leave so many openings he couldn't help but send out zabimaru's first strike. The new third seat saw it coming and quickly yet gracefully blocked it away with what looked like nothing but the palm of his hand. "Hakke Kusho."

"Is that the best you have?" the teen taunted as he glanced up at his lieutenant.

Renji was curious about the rookie's change in eye color and the fact that he basically pushed away Zabimaru with his bare hands and had not even the smallest of cuts. He decided to save it for later though, for he didn't want to spoil the mood (fight mood). He pulled back Zabimaru and threw it once more. This time however he intentionally missed and let it turn and attack from behind. The teen simply did the same as he did just before, fast and without even looking behind him. In the process, he split Zabimaru's joints somehow, halting it from progressing in offense.

Renji was stunned at the counter attack. How did he see the attack, and for that matter how did he disassemble Zabimaru. He lift Zabimaru's blades with haste and fired each one at the other from all sides.

"Hakkeshō Kaiten" The third seat proclaimed as he began to make swift, undetectable motions with his hands all around and performed swift yet calm footwork. Although his movement seemed to make a crater in the ground and fend off Renji's attack, that was the only thing that could be seen.

Recalling Zabimaru, Renji walked over the newbie as he sheathed his weapon "You sure are different. with a Shikai like that you think you'd be on squad 2." He stated as he examined the others eyes, "Those eyes of yours, I'm not sure how they work, but they sure are interesting."

The teen recalled his zanpakuto and sheathed it as well, his eyes once again black as night "I specifically asked not to be put on that team. If I'm to take orders I'd prefer to have a bit of freedom." he said as he straightened out, "My eyes are my shikai, I see it as a blessing, I can finally fight as I know how to again."

Squad 8-

With much surprise, squad 8 didn't really change too much. The new 3rd seat fit in with ease and quickly became fast friends with Captain Kyoraku. He was around 43 years of age and long spiky white hair which was tied in a pony tail. On his face were about 2 or 3 warts and he carried his zanpakutou on his back. He would often have a drink (or many) with Kyoraku and perhaps join in Go or Shogi along with Ukitake. He had also shared his memories from his life, which Kyoraku found quite intriguing. He told him about his stubborn, headstrong, arrogant, knuckleheaded students that would never back down. Kyoraku thought that they reminded him of Ichigo. He told him about his novels and how famous he was for them. When asked about where his inspiration came from, he just said "Research" and took a sip of sake. He told him about the monster strong, perfect size, fierce tempered, "sake loving", bad luck gambler, debt owing, love of his life that he had promised to return to.

Today he was with his captain again, playing Go and drinking sake. "So Captain, do you ever wonder what your little Nanao chan is up to when she's not nagging us?" He said as he placed a tile.

"Sure sure, but I for one enjoy wondering. It leaves a variety of possibilities. I win." Kyoraku said as he placed his winning move.

The third seat eyed the board and rubbed the back of his head. "Hmm. I guess you did."

Suddenly out of nowhere the giggling of two lieutenants a third seat, and a tenth seat coming from the other side of the bushes. The third seat immediately had a pencil and note pad and was at the bushes. Kyoraku, upon hearing his little Nanao chan and learning of his new third seat's research tactics, followed suit.

Right there stood a flushed Nanao whom had been "edited" (think like rangiku or a guy there XD) by a giggling Matsumoto. Next to her were the two from squad four. A well grown Orihime and her little follower.

"Heh, research. Research…" the third seat mumbled as his stared and took notes. Kyoraku on the other hand was focused on Nanao and her "make-over job".

About ten minutes later, a certain blonde captain approached the girls and pointed to the bush with a grin on his face. The four of them immediately went red and Nanao was furious. She knew all too well that her captain was taking part in this.

She stomped over to the bush, grabbed her captain by the collar, and dragged him away, scolding him in the process.

After telling the other 3 to be one their way, the third squad captain made his way over to the bush as well. When he arrived, he found himself a very disappointed third seat. "Sorry Sensei, but 'your research' is the last thing we need." He said with his famous grin.

The middle aged third seat sighed before smiling back and standing up. "Really? But how am I supposed to introduce my novels to the Soul Society if don't research." He joked

The two old friends laughed, "Now now, I'm sure you could think of some stuff on your own. Your lieutenant isn't too happy about all of this." The Captain explained as the two began to walk toward the third seat's room. "Please tell me you haven't involved my son in your research, have you." He added when they arrived. Sadly enough he had been involved ever since he was 12.

Squad 9—

Like squad five, squad nine also gained a new Captain. Rima Kuzuki, a young girl from the Rukongai and a good friend of Ame. They went through everything together, and were closer than even Kyoraku and Ukitake or Renji and Rukia, Hitsugaya and Momo even. She had rough and unevenly cut short hair with several layers of black and blond. Like nearly every other shinigami on the squad, her shihakushou was sleeveless, as was her haori, revealing black tattoos all down each arm. She was fairly slim yet just enough to be flexible and agile, and just about 5'6" in height.

At the moment Rima was enjoying a cup of tea in her office as she did some paperwork. It was then that Lieutenant Hisagi Shuhei walked by, once again, catching her attention and pulling her away from her work. It was almost like a reverse of gender same situation as squad 8. You know, the Captain with loads of paperwork is easily distracted by a cute guy. The big difference though, was that she only saw interest in Hisagi, oh, and he was fine with it.

She got up once again and began to follow him secretly. After they got about nine (loll, pun intended) rooms down he stopped and sighed. "Captain, this is the sixth (backward but also a pun) time this week. Why don't you just ask me to wait a moment when you see me?" he said, referring to the fact that she never just talked straight forward but instead followed him until he stopped to speak to her.

"Well that's obvious, it's fun." She lied. The real reason was that she was to shy.

Hisagi turned to look at her, "So what do you need today Captain Kuzuki?" he asked calmly. Rima always asked him for something and it never made any sense.

"Oh! That's right, I was gonna ask you if you could come with me to the south Rukan district for, um… party shopping, yeah that's it. I need help shopping for stuff." She said childishly. Not only was it always something that didn't make sense, but it always required him going somewhere with her.

Of course he'd never admit it, but he was catching on, and enjoying the outings. "Alright, let's go then." He replied in a mixed, arrogant-smooth tone. Right as they started walking, Shuhei decided to be sly and put his hand around her waist, making her not only jump, but blush until her face was the color of a strawberry. Hisagi just chuckled as they kept walking.

Squad 10—

"Damn it! Stupid hangover." Uryu complained as he lie on the sofa. The previous night had been forgotten to him. Now he was going off of what his captain told him and his hangover side effects.

Flashback—

Uryu stumbled out of the restroom, with a hand on his hot, echoing, pale forehead. "Ugh, I feel horrible." He moaned as he made his way down the hall.

"That's what happens when you get drunk." Said an irritated Hitsugaya at the end of the hall.

"What… are you… talking about?" He managed before falling on the couch.

"Last night, I came in to find you, and Rangiku, drunk on sake. You were beating the life out of one of the other squad members." Hitsugaya explained.

"Rangiku I believe, beating the crap out that jerk, yes, but I doubt I'd be drunk. I'm probably just sick, or stressed out." Uryu argued.

"Yeah, well believe it. You're dealing with a hangover. What surprises me is that you only had one cup." Hitsugaya added on to his statement.

"Tch, so I can't hold my liquor huh?" he thought to himself, "right, note to self. No more sake."

End flashback—

"Hey Uryu!" a familiar and annoying voice called, ringing in his aching head. Now he knew what Toshiro went through every day. "Uryu, wanna have some sake with me and the girls?" she called from outside the door.

"NO! I'm never drinking again!" he hollered back to the annoying woman. That's when he remembered who the main target was for hanging out when it came to Matsumoto. "HOLD ON ONE MOMENT THERE! ORIHIME!" he called as he rushed out after them. As he held his forehead in a firmer grip.

Squad 11—

The great Kenpachi battle squad had also achieved a new member. A new 4th seat to be precise. He was tall and muscular, and wore bandages wrapped around the bottom half of his face. His attitude was like that of his Captain and he never back away from a challenge, though he was greatly skilled in silent killing. He was meant to be on squad 2, but he'd heard of squad 11's ways and threatened central 46 to place him on squad eleven.

At the moment he was sparring with Ichigo. His guillotine blade like shikai up against Zangetsu, matching each other in size. "Is that all you've got Kurosaki!" he said in a somewhat quiet, arrogant tone. He had taken two kidou blows, one getsuga tenshou and about 7 direct hits from his opponent and yet he was still at it. Even with all of the blood he'd lost, he didn't back down.

Ichigo twitched an eyebrow in confusion, "What on earth are you talking about, your half dead!" he replied. Along with that fact, Ichigo had taken about a third of the same amount of damage.

"Who cares about that? I fight to the end!" the aggressive Kenpachi copy stated as he launched another attack. He didn't care if he died, he didn't belong here anyway. His own subordinate had a better position among the gotei 13 then he did. He had heard all of the story's about Ichigo. About his saving Rukia, and defeating the bounts, his destroying Aizen in the War, and assisting in the fight against the zanpakutou rebellion and Muromasa. The kid was strong in his opinion. The first week Ichigo had arrived, he was challenged by this new rival, and once every week after.

Ichigo blocked the blow with Zangetsu and pushed back. "You never win, and you never go for a killing blow, so why do you keep lying to yourself?!" he brought up as he breathed heavily.

It was true, the forth seat never beat him, not once. When he got close, he froze up and Ichigo pinned him down. Those words brought all the battles back to his mind. Why was it that he couldn't be as he was when he was alive. Perhaps it had something to do with that last battle and the sacrifice made for him. Perhaps it was that boy, the loud one, the naive air-head who spoke of making his dream come true. The kid with a never doubtful smile.

Ichigo stared at the other and let out a breath of relief. Finally, he was lost in thought. 'I'm getting out of here before he stops daydreaming' he thought as he ran off Zangetsu on his back.

Squad 12—

Captain Kurotsuchi was rather active these days; the squad's new member brought him much interest. Apparently, the boy was 40 years of age when he died yet he looked so young. No, not young, but like a child, he looked to be in his early or mid teens. Yes, according to captain Kurotsuchi, he was quite intriguing indeed. This particular boy was given the position of seat 3.

At the moment, the young looking redhead was sitting in his room, his green eyes staring at his arm. He wasn't wearing the top half of his uniform at the moment and he had a sad yet blank expression on his face.

The boy rotated his arm slightly, then his wrist. He sighed "It's still so strange. To be able to feel things again. To not have wires and traps in my joints." He thought aloud. That was something that was interesting to the Captain. This boy was full of mysteries. His Zanpakutou, Akasuna, was interesting as well.

The release took the form of the boy himself. Messy short, red hair, green yet void eyes, and somewhat short yet teen like. I had joints like a puppet, full of traps, weapons, and poisons. The puppet shikai was his former self basically. It was bare-chested with an emblem at the heart, black pants, and blue sash, with as long scorpion like tail. When being used, it obviously had no hilt; instead, it was puppeted by strings.

Just then Nemu stepped in. "Pardon me. Mayuri sama wishes to see you." She said in her normal monotone voice.

The boy got up and sighed. "I will be right there Lieutenant Kurotsuchi, after all, I hate making people wait." And with that, he put the rest of the shihakushou back on, covering the scar above his heart, and walked off.

Squad 13—

Squad 13, meant for maintaining records and finding them mainly, now had not one but two new fourth seats. Constantly arguing, constantly fighting, and yet best friends, one it was hard to answer how. After all, one caused the other's death, there should be a grudge.

The first young man was about early 20s, as was the other, and had wild black hair which barely shaded his black eyes, hiding the dark rings beneath them. He always hunched, slouched and sat awkwardly. Along with this, he always went barefoot and held everything with his fingertips alone. He ate so much sugar that he could beat Yachiru in a candy contest. Lastly, he hated his name and asked that he be called by his old allies instead.

As for the other, he had clean, smooth, short light brown hair and matching eyes. He was always neat and could solve anything. There were time when he seemed depressed and only his rival knew why. It was his father, had he never tried to change things, his father would be alive. So would his best friend, and so would he. When he felt like this he just shoved it aside with a "At least the crime rates went down" and hi rival would follow with a "You shouldn't be talking about crime going down, you were the biggest one."

As the two were doing paperwork that day a hell butterfly flew in. "Attention all members of squad 13, you are being assigned to discover the reason behind the sudden hollow outbreak and why they have gotten stronger without being arrancar, report with any findings to Captain Ukitake, thank you" the butterfly said and fluttered away. The brown haired fourth seat smirked at the other, "this sounds like a challenge. You up for it"

The other looked back at him, "childish as ever. Let's just hope it doesn't lead to my death, again" he replied in a kid like tone.

AN: How was it? Longest chap I ever wrote ever. Here are the characters, in order.

Haku, Minato (4th), Rin, OC, Hayate Gekkou, Neji, Jiraiya, OC, Zabuza Momochi, Sasori, L aka Ryuzaki, Light.

I need ideas reviews flames, the works.

Arigato

Chuu 3

Jingle—start comercial


	6. Aftershock

**A/N: Gah! Not again. Graduation, after school stuff, Bf trouble AGAIN! TToTT, broken heart. Long chap. Now look yes I know I'm inaccurate but this is a fanfic and and I started before the aizan battle but I will stick to some things like the hokyoku, but yeah, you don't like it to bad XP. Anyway. BANKAI! Auther style;)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own bleach naruto or Death Note or the characters I only own Ame and Rima because they are OC's**

**Jingle—end commercial **

"Kurosaki kun," Captain Ukitake called after Ichigo just before going into a coughing fit. "I need you to take over for a" _~cough cough~_ "a while."

Ichigo ran over to him to offer assistance. "Captain, are you okay?" he said, helping Ukitake to his room.

"Don't worry about Kurosaki Kun, I just need some rest." He assured as they arrived at the room. Coughing a few more times, he opened the door and entered the room with Ichigo's assistance. "I'm putting you in charge until I get better. Don't worry this is actually very common. In the past, Kaien liked calling himself Captain because he was in charge so often." He explained, coughing once more.

"You're sure? I mean, I'm not very good at my job as it is. Besides, you just said that Kaien used to…" Ichigo was cut off.

"I'm sure, Rukia needs to get used to this somehow anyway. As for paperwork, the main focus now is yesterdays report from Genrysai sensei, and Yagami Kun and Lawliet Kun are already competing to figure it out." By now Ukitake had already gotten situated on his futon. After completing his last sentence he began coughing again.

Ichigo went over to his side to help him get his breathing back. "Alright, just stop talking and get some sleep." Ichigo insisted in what, to anyone who didn't know him, sounded like a demanding way; but Juushiro had already caught onto his personality and merely smiled, nodding, and took his advice.

Seven weeks had gone by, and things weren't looking good. More prisoners escaping, more gillians and overly strong hollows that held back, more Uryuu vs. anyone who questions his being there, Rukia was still crying in her sleep, Momo still didn't trust Ame, Minato still had to spoil things for Jiraiya and Shunsui, Ichigo was still being challenged by Zabuza, no, most of squad eleven, Sasori was beginning to do experiments **With** Mayuri, and Ukitake was still ill. With all of this, the research on what was making normal hollows so strong was coming along, yes, but made no sense at all; which takes us to the Seiretei archives.

Inside the massive building, full of bookshelves, books, stacks of books, scrolls, and desks, Light and Ryuzaki scanned through everything there for the tenth time. Neither one had stopped to rest in the last four days.

At the moment, Light was on the floor at the bottom shelf reading about the data on arrancar, while munching on a bowl of apples. At the same time, Ryuzaki was sitting, sort of, at a desk. He was eating and playing with sugar cubes while looking at some hidden documents on the hokyoku that Aizen had mistakenly left behind.

It had been strange that so many hollows were becoming stronger. Was it because of some sort of "Aizen aftershock" and if so, it must have something to do with the hokyoku. The document was saying something about it giving the holder what they most desired as well as those around them. Perhaps more hollows were affected then they'd thought, just at a slower pace.

For some reason, they must have been thinking the same thing, at the same time, because they _both _stopped, put everything away, grabbed their notes and ran out to tell Ichigo.

At the squad 13… let's call it a barracks garden.

Ichigo was sitting casually on the wooden deck (don't know what to call it) along with Renji. This was pretty much the only time he could be casual lately, after moving in with Rukia that is. His hair was still that brownish shade of black, and was starting to get longer. At the moment it was just past his hairline and at mid-neck, his bangs just above his eyes.

As for Renji, he was still sort of jealous of his Rival. How he had been put in charge of the squad, how he was recognized as a captain rather than lieutenant, how Byakuya had pretty much invited him into the family rather than simply letting him stay there, and how Rukia noticed him more now than she did him. At the same time however, he was happy for Ichigo, he was glad that he was able to obtain what he deserved. He agreed with everything that Ichigo had achieved. "Hey man, you need to lighten up. Really, I'm sure she'll come around." He said nudging Ichigo's shoulder.

"She has, but every night is still the same. I mean, she's back to the same ol' Rukia I knew…" Ichigo spaced and counted back, how long had it been again. She began acting weird that day they'd got there so…"let's just say last year, but she still cries through the night." He finished as he took a drink of sake.

Just then, Light and Ryuzaki came running up with a ton of notes and no breath. When they stopped Ichigo handed them both some water (yes he has water and sake, he waters down his drinks).

"We have something on what may be happening with the hollows lately, as well as the prisoners." Light explained as he handed his notes over to Ichigo.

"Allow me to explain lieutenant." Ryuzaki began as he took a pen and paper and began a diagram. "Nearly two months ago, various hollows began to attack. Each one was reported to have held back. This includes gillions, adjueches', and every prisoner who seemed to have hollow powers. At the same time, each one seemed at first to be fighting 100%, however ever report said that by the end of the battle, they'd calculated the power level to be less than half."

Light pointed to a paragraph in the notes that they had taken. "We found some of Sosuke Aizen's research notes on the hokyoku, stating various hollowfication tests and the true power of the hokyoku. I have a hunch. I think that if the hokyoku was meant to bring forth what the host wanted most in their heart, as well as those around it; perhaps it wasn't only specified hollows that were affected but instead, all of Hueco Mundo. Also, I believe that the prisoners we keep finding are in fact, unskilled Hollowfication experiment victim who never got found out." He suggested in a business tone.

With this information, Renji went into shock and Ichigo froze. "In other words, nothing but arrancar and vizards." He said under his breath but loud enough to be heard. "You might be right; first we'll ask Captain Kurotsuchi about it. If he agrees, then we tell Yama Jii right away." He instructed as he stood up, as did Renji, and started to make his way back to his office. "I'll inform Juushiro." And with that they were both gone.

**Research and development dept.**

"How interesting. Sasori, run down to the maggots' nest and grab one of the prisoners that escaped recently!" Kurotsuchi said with enlightenment after being informed about the "Aftershock theory" by Light and Ryuzaki.

"Of course." Sasori confirmed as he took his leave.

Mayuri then looked over at the pair, "This won't take long at all. Once he gets back I'll examine the specimen and compare him with Kurosaki. As for Hueco Mundo, my scanners read positive. Not a single hollow from before the war is less than an arrancar." He specified as he motioned to the computer screen. It was a map of Hueco Mundo, and it nearly 99% full of flashing crimson dots. (He works fast; he laid scanners when he was there that one time. XD)

Ryuzaki examined the screen as pressed his upper lip with the tip of his thumb. "Less than? Then you're saying they could be stronger." He pointed out.

Kurotsuchi eyed him, these two were quite talented in observation skills. "Correct, in fact, I could possibly categorize them. First: level; Arrancar or espada? Next: if espada, then what would the number be, 0-9. Last, If they are stronger then a number 0, they will be known as a Minus (Me-Noos) numerous, and their number would be a negative. Surely a few geniuses like you know how espada numbers and negatives work yes?" he explained.

Light nodded and stood firm as he kept a serious look on his face, though on the inside fear was building. _This couldn't be happening, there were hollows… stronger then a level 0 espada? __**–"What's wrong Light? I thought you were going to get rid of all of the evil in the world. Well this seems pretty evil to me. *hyuk hyuk*"**_- a voice in his head mocked at him. "_Shut up Ryuk! I don't have time to deal with you right now." _he replied back to him in thought form, a little (a lot) annoyed. Like Ichigo, Who had to deal with his hollow side, Light had to deal with Ryuk; who was actually his Zanpakutou.

"Are you okay Light?" Ryuzaki asked, concerned. He knew him to well, to be fooled by that mask that he was hiding behind. Besides, he knew that Ryuk liked to toy with him.

"I'm fine, but my swords about to take a beating if he doesn't shut up." He said with an aggravated tone.

Mayuri eyed the two expectantly, "Please report this information back to your captain, I will report the data on the prisoner at the meeting." He said as Sasori walked back in, dragging a prisoner behind him.

"Thank you for confirming our hypothesis Captain…" Ryuzaki said with a light bow.

"We'll deliver the information immediately." Light said, completing the sentence and bowing as well followed by the both of them leaving.

2 hours later—

-bong! Bong!- "-attention all captains and lieutenants. There will be a Captains meeting in 5 min."- said someone via butterfly.

With that, every captain and lieutenant made their way to the main meeting room.

**2-**

As usual Soi Fon made her way down the halls with nearly just as much pride as Byakuya.

"Haku, this is your first meeting. Do me a favor and stay quiet" She requested, no, ordered her young lieutenant.

The boy nodded "of course Captain." came his obedient response as they entered the meeting hall.

**3 and 8-**

Minato had been interrupting a _research_ session **again. **Nanao had been yelling at Shunsui for participating in the act. Jiraiya had been trying to escape when the alarm sounded.

Minato was feeling rather on edge about the meeting. One reason was the meaning behind it and another because it would be his first. Shunsui was actually putting on a serious face after hearing the announcement.

"Nanao, I have a feeling he wants lieutenants there too. Jiraiya your in charge until I get back" the lazy captain said in a serious tone.

"And no research. Come on Shunsui, we should hurry up" and with that they were off picking up Kira on the way.

**4-**

Unohana was her normal neutral self about the report and went to the meeting ahead of Isane after asking her to deliver a message.

Isane went to find Orihime and when she did she gave her the message "Inoue chan, Captain Unohana has put you in charge until we get done with our meeting ok?"

Orihime nodded with a smile, "sure, how hard could it be?"

With that Isane thanked her and hurried off.

(3 minutes later she gets loads of patients nearly half from squad 10)

**5-**

Ame heard the announcement and immediately stood up from her desk. "hopefully this means they're onto something" she thought aloud as she stepped outside and quickly walked down the hall. After a while Momo joined her with a rather distrusting look on her face.

"I've put Hayate in charge if that's okay with you" she said in a whatever like tone.

"Thank you Hinamori chan, I had hoped you'd do that. Now let's hurry and get to the meeting." she said easily, trying not to _break_ what little, and mean very little, trust she'd gained. Along with that, she was eager to learn of the hollow mystery.

**6-**

Renji was slightly annoyed with the announcement. He had just gotten back to the barracks when it sounded. Now he was following Byakuya back down the hall toward the meeting.

"So your going to leave the new kid in charge, brilliant idea captain." Renji stated with a hint of sarcasm.

"Renji, the last time I checked, I was your superior. Now unless I'm wrong I suggest you not question me." he retorted with a stoic monotone.

Renji was silent, now more annoyed then before.

"Neji knows what he's doing, he'll do fine." and with that said they entered the meeting room.

**9-**

Rima was with Shuhei when they heard the announcement, and they both went into immediate business mode and told the third seat to take over. (okay that's all I got for that squad).

**10-**

"Matsumoto!" came Hitsugaya's loud voice as the hung over lieutenant woke up.

"Huh, oh captain, what's wrong?" she asked as she got up with a hand on her head.

"let's go we have a meeting to go to." Toshiro said as Uryuu walked in, "Ishida, your in charge until we get back." and with that he left, dragging Rangiku out with him.

It wasn't to much longer after that that Uryuu had sent a good number of the squad to the infirmary.

**11-**

Things were pretty chaotic when Zaraki left for the meeting. He had left Yachiru in charge of things. (she isn't allowed at meetings) That was a bad move, well from a non squad 11 perspective anyway. Not long after the feisty captain had left and Yachiru went off explore somewhere, probably the Kuchiki residence, and Ayasagawa watched Zabuza spar with Ikaku.

**12-**

**(yeah… no explanation Sasori is running things and all is the same)**

**13-**

Ichigo was in a slight panic. His captain was still ill so he had to account for both of them and both third seats were busy tending to him so he put light and Ryuzaki in charge. The panic was also do to his already awareness of the situation. To make matters worse, he had no clue how this going to go about and he the anxiety was going to show for sure. Not good, nearly two months of living among nobles, what if he blew it at the meeting.

As he speed walked down the hall to the meeting he thought of these things and it was making him nervous.

"Hey baka!" came a familiar voice as he turned to see a short cocky raven smiling at him. "What happened to your confidence? Look, you'll do fine so get over it. If my brother sees you like this he might kick you out so…" she stopped as she had walked up him, and sighed "just be yourself minus the attitude, okay?" and with that she smiled up at him.

It took a moment for him to register everything, but he smiled and nodded. "Thanks Rukia." he said as he gave her a pat on the head (the arrogant kind not the cute kind) and shot a grin that he didn't think was doing the small harm it was. "I needed that. Now I need to go and you look tired SO GO GET SOME REST!" he fake commanded as he ended with a laugh and the saw the same look on her face that she had a year ago, and realized he'd made a mistake "look I'm sorry. I didn't..," she cut him off by hold up a hand.

" It's alright, you wouldn't have known. I need to get over it." she said softly. The with a quick change in tone she added, "now you have about 1 minute you baka."

The when he realized he was going to be late and shunpoed away. After which Rukia gave a small chuckle and turned to walk back to the barracks.

**The meeting-**

Kurotsuchi had just finished explaining the confirmed "aftershock theory". Nearly everyone went into a slight state of shock.

"If this is the case, then we are yet again in a state of emergency." Genryusai proclaimed to the group.

"I don't mean to sound rebellious but how exactly do we determine the differences? I mean, so far it's been random and they can hold back their raitsu level." Rima announced in a cocky yet serious tone quite similar to Hitsugaya's.

"She has a point, what if one our subordinates is accidentally sent after one of the espada ranks." Minato threw in, feeling slightly uneasy do to past experiences and a strange spiritual pull that was tugging on his spirit thread. _This can't be good_, _don't tell me it's about to happen now of all times.(1)_ he thought to himself. This needed to end fast or he would end up blaming himself for a new heavy population in the rukon district.

"Not to worry Captain Kuzuki. We have started working on portable radars for everyone, we should have 3 for each squad by tomorrow to start with. Eventually everyone will have their own. They will automatically determine the category of the hollow then power level, etc. An example reading could be: category: espada, base: adjueches, Rank: 6 (XD grimmjaw) or category: arrancar, base: vatso lordes. It all depends" Mayuri explained in a 'don't worry about a thing' sort of way.

"what do we do about the prisoners?" Soi Fon questioned in a slightly sharp tone.

"There isn't much that we can do but try and keep them contained, If it's been this long their inner hollows would have already taken over. Even if we were to just kill them…" Ichigo began explaining, it being one of the few time he spoke on top of that, he remember his fight with Ullquiora and how he had ended up stabbing Uryuu. He had been ruthless and he had no control whatsoever. He sighed "to even try would be risky, it would be like going up against an espada that ran on pure hollow instinct but hat full awareness of how to fight." he thought back to his training. "when I was training to control my hollow, and when I was regaining my powers, they used high level kidou to either restrain me or put up a barrier… if we do something like that, we should be okay to some extant." he wasn't comfortable telling all of this but it was required for the sake of the whole universe.

All eyes were on Ichigo for a brief moment, when finally "Then that is what we will do. And from now on, nobody leaves the Seiretei alone and along with a partner they shall always have a squad four member and radar. You will run 24/7 scouting sessions of the districts in cycle shifts. The districts are from here out never to be without a patrol unit, at least until this is settled. Is that understood?" Yamamoto declared and when everyone nodded, "Dismissed!"

**A/N: YO! How was it, sucked huh. Oh well hey I need some ideas and criticism so review away.**

**1: refers to a chapter in naruto during the pain battle**

**M arigato**

**V Chuu!**

**Jingle! Start commercial…**


	7. The Raistu Eater

**A/N: Now look yes I know I'm inaccurate but this is a fanfic and and I started before the aizan battle but I will stick to some things like the hokyoku, but yeah, you don't like it to bad, oh yeah, there is a big twist in this chapter, geuss what it is, te he XP. Anyway. BANKAI! Auther style;)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own bleach naruto or Death Note or the characters I only own Ame and Rima because they are OC's**

**Jingle—end commercial **

******chapter 7: the raitsu eater**

Everyone was on edge now, ever since they found out what was going on. After a few weeks every seated officer had a radar and it was decided that only seated officers and higher were to leave the Seiretei unless for a mission in the living world. Well, except Rukia because everyone knew she _should _be an officer.

Ichigo had handed things back over to Ukitake for he had gotten better and was now getting ready for his shift in the west Rukan districts 1-20. He was partnering up with Uryuu and Rukia, mainly to get him away from his next victims to be. The squad four member was Orihime. It was nearly the whole group.

"Hey Ichigo!" a chipper yet hyper voice called.

Ichigo turned around to see Uryuu and a waving Orihime. Ichigo smiled and waved back, it had been awhile since he'd seen them. "hey guys, been a while huh?"

"8 months, it's not that bad. Besides, you have Rukia here, and I saw Renji the other day he something about you moving in with her." Uryuu stated calmly.

"yeah, some time back I guess. There's a bit of a catch too. I mean really, I'm grateful and all but do I have to prove it?" he thought aloud, a bit agitated at the fact that Byakuya was trying to change his personality. It was almost scary because he was actually starting to use suffixes. (yes that's scary cause Ichigo doesn't even use last names much less suffixes an example is toshiro)

"So what, you learn to be polite and you get a nice place to live. I call that luck" Uryuu tossed up, earning an arrogant glare from Ichigo.

"Something's goin' on in his head, some crazy plan. I think he's…" Ichigo was going to tell him what was up with Byakuya but then noticed Rukia was coming up to them and he suddenly had full composure and lost all trace of arrogance. "come on, we need to be out there by the time the other squad gets back." he said, his tone changing to a more serious yet calm one. And with that he began to walk toward the gate.

"um… what just happened?" Uryuu said, a bit confused as they followed him.

Rukia sighed, "there are two reason for his new attitude. One, and mainly, my brothers pretty much, how should I put this…taming him though I don't know why he bothers. Its not like him to willingly The second is because he thinks if he acts like this around me I'll be distracted from the fact that he's so much like my old lieutenant." Rukia explained, and though she didn't approve of the idea she had to admit, it worked, a little.

"hey what's with his hair?" Orihime piped, just noticing the brownish black and slightly longer hair.

"ink." Ichigo answered bluntly as the entered the Rukongai. "now focus, we're supposed to keep patrol of districts 1-20."

"wow, I think I might actually like the new Ichigo." Uryuu thought to himself.

**District 13-**

So far, things were doing just fine. No hollows, no prisoners. They ran into Ganju and his gang a while back, he took one look at Ichigo and burst into hysterics causing a rather annoyed Ichigo to explain _everything_ and now he was sick of telling the story. Now they were patrolling district 13 and were beginning to sense some strong raitsu.

The team stopped when the heard someone yell. Civilians came running their way in terror. One woman ran up to them with a pale and scared face. "Please help us! There is a very strange creature over there… and that poor brave boy." she said in a frantic voice.

"it'll be alright, that's exactly why we're here." Orihime said trying to calm to scared woman.

"let's go." Ichigo said as they ran in they direction of the hollow. As they got closer he pulled out his radar.

Category: espada

Rank: 8

Reason: intoxication

Base: adjueches+ (that means almost vasto lordes)

"Orihime use you shikai and your rika, Uryuu stay behind the shield and fire from afar. Rukia…" he paused and change his to from that of a leader to that of concern, "just be careful." he had an a worried look on his face as he looked down at her.

"I'll be fine Ichigo, now let's do this." she said trying to break the awkward moment

The four of them now stood in front of an arrancar with a broken mask that was smooth and had a sharks fin on the back. His whole body was ocean blue and he had sinister golden eyes and a toothy grin. His zanpakutou as big as Ichigo's and completely wrapped up. "awww fresh meat. my samehada adda' love havin' a good taste a' you shinigami" he said grinning.

"I've dealt with much worse then scum like you." Ichigo stated coolly as he unsheathed Zangetsu. "Orihime." he said as in asking her to help the injured civilians.

She nodded, "right." she drew her Zanpakutou, "Guard us and fight, Hoshihana." her zanpakutou broke into several six petaled flowers and zipping glass shards. "Hana Keshun" (hana is flower and keshun I got from the the sheild incantation) With a small motion of her wrist, the flowers became linked with kidou vines. She then turned to the civilians to see who was hurt. Everyone looked no more the scared some had a few scratches from falling due to running away but other than that they were okay for now. "you'll be alright just stay behind the flowers" she walked over to get a better look and then noticed that someone was indeed hurt pretty bad, it was the boy that the woman was worried about she guessed though he was actually more of a young man than a boy. "Souten kishun!" she recited as she, Ayame, and Shuon rushed over to him. He was severely injured and heavily bleeding. "it's ok, you'll be better soon." she said as she began healing him. The young man slowly turned to look at her and when they locked faces they were both in shock. He had short brown hair and dark blue eyes and was around 20 years of age. "Sora?" she said weakly as she healed him.

**Back to the battle XD-**

Uryuu also withdrew his zanpakutou, "Return, Sanrei" he announced with pride. The sword instantly became a thick white and blue, stringless bow as long as his own height, which attached to his wrist in the middle with small silver prong from both top and bottom, and on his right hand he now wore a white gauntlet with a blue cross design. After that he stayed on stand by as he pandered the battle scenario.

Rukia took a step back from Ichigo and drew her zanpakutou, "Dance, Sode no Shirayuki. Tsugi no mai, Hakuren!" she proclaimed, firing an ice cannon at the espada.

Hearing the attack Ichigo jumped out of the way, but so did the hollow, both drawing their swords at one another. When Zangetsu clashed with the sword supposedly known as Samehada, Ichigo felt as though he and Zangetsu were being drained. He quickly withdrew and was panting a little. "what did you do?" he asked the hollow.

The arrancar gave an insane laugh that was like that of Zaraki's. "well since your about to die I'll tell you. My Samehada here, even when he's not released, eats it's opponents raitsu upon contact!" he yelled and charged in on Ichigo, "And you have Almost more the kyuubi brat from my living days!"

"Tsumei no mai, Tsukishiro!" came Rukia with a pillar of ice that encased that shark hollow. But to no avail for the ice broke do to the raitsu being shot back out of samehada. Rukia was stunned, how could he escape that attack? Then again it had happened before with Grimmjaw.

"Hoshiken!"(means star blade) hundreds of shooting stars whizzed behind the arrancar and cut straight through and returned back to whizzing around the shield, catching the hollow off guard.

The injured and angry Arrancar looked over to where the stars had gone and saw Orihime with a serious and somewhat vengeful battle face on (like when her rika first awakened) and a worried yet stunned Sora standing behind her. "You'll pay for that girl!" he yelled and rushed after her.

Orihime stood her ground and sent another attack, this time coming from all directions and soon after highly vibrating blue raitsu arrows were being shot from various directions. He was hit from all side, stopping some with Samehada.

Uryuu had come up with this the moment samehada's power was explained. If they could get around the sword they stood a chance. And it only absorbed raitsu via weapon contact so maybe kidou would work, or even his original bow for that matter.

"That's it! I'm going all out!" He roared holding his sword up high, "Rip them to shreds, Samehada!" and with that he became a 6 foot tall blue shark humanoid with rough sharp scales and a mouthful of teeth. His hands and feet were extremely large and he had long claws. He glared at the barrier of flowers and inhaled greatly when he noticed one of the opening in the vines that Uryuu was preparing to fire from. Orihime was unaware of her shield flaw for it had never before been penetrated.

Uryuu's eyes widened as he realized what was happening, he quickly fired. "Orihime! Your rika now! Everyone get down!"

They did as they were told and right on time, because at that moment the hollow released a breath of scales at them and scale that didn't get stopped passed through the barrier which now seemed to be more like a net. Various people receiving injuries, some blocked by Souten Keshun, some by Ichigo, who had quickly released his Bankai. Everyone else was badly wounded especially Uryuu who had taken a full on blow. Rukia was behind Ichigo, and not by choice.

"Orihime, start healing them, Rukia help her out." Ichigo said in a low voice yet stern voice as he brought a hand up to his face.

Both girls nodded, understanding the situation. As he pulled on his mask the two went work with healing and Orihime kept her shield up to block as much of Ichigo's raitsu that she could. "Hana Kishun!" she recited and rotated the hilt of Hoshihana as the floating flowers began to spin and pollinate over the civilians.

"Uryuu, that zanpakutou is like a combination of your Quincy abilities right?" Ichigo asked in his raspy vizard voice. He got the idea from seeing him fire off a flurry a resemblance of Scheele Schneider and yet the zanpakutou the form of his old gauntlet.

Uryuu glanced over at the newly formed, more focused and serious, lieutenant Kurosaki, "yeah, more or less and I think I know what your getting at. Don't worry, I can pull it off, but only once."

"That's fine, if it doesn't kill him it'll at least stop him long enough for me to attack. It looks like he has a weak spot in front. His stomach has no scales and I think that those are what eat the raitsu." Ichigo explained and the dashed of to battle the espada. Nodding, Uryuu got to work on forming a pentagram in the ground

Ichigo shunpoed halfway to the shark hollow before defending him self from a flurry of more scales, hitting away every last one. (like in the awesome Byakuya fight) He then dashed in closer and just before he got there he shunpoed around to the back of him and fired off a cero to catch him off guard, and it worked. The espada absorbed took the hit and was about to fire another round of scales and a bala from each hand when he turned around, only to be hit by two getsuga tenshous.

Ichigo quickly jumped back a few feet and a pillar of blue shot up and exploded creating a giant cloud of smoke. When the smoke cleared, the hollow was barely able to support itself on one knee. Non-the-less, he wasn't dead yet. That is until Ichigo and Uryuu both hit him with a full blown byakurai.

As the espada began to vanish into dust, everyone sealed their zanpakutous and Ichigo removed his mask. "Is everyone alright?" he asked as he walked over to check on the civilians. "Orihime, what's the status over here?"

"We're alright. Everybody is healed and look, I found Sora." Orihime informed spontaneously as she clung to her long lost brother who was a little embarrassed and surprised all at the same time. He gave a small wave and an awkward smile

"Orihime!" Uryuu came running with a worried expression that finally changed into a relieved one when he saw she was unharmed.

The crowd settled down and a few children ran over to thank them as did the adults. Finally Sora came out and asked Ichigo "Kurosaki san…how did it happen?" his voice showed his sadness as he glanced down at his clinging sister.

Ichigo sighed, this was something he didn't want to think about. It had been just over a year since they'd arrived, and they were starting to forget. "It was the last day of senior year before finales. We were all on our way to my place to study and to put it short, got into a pretty bad traffic accident. I'm sorry that Orihime didn't make it, had it not been for the glass she could have gotten by with nothing but a concussion." he explained to the worried brother.

Orihime let go of Sora and looked up at him with a smile, "It's ok Sora, you don't have to worry about me anymore." she said, trying to cheer him up.

Just then Uryuu pulled her over to him and held her close, "You're her brother? Then could I have your permission to be with her?" he asked him, trying to be proper now that her former guardian was involved in her life again. Orihime couldn't help but blush.

Sora smiled, he could see that she had already been with him for quite some time anyway, and nodded, "I don't see anything wrong with that, after all, you seem to be a nice boy not to mention you both already have gotten yourselves good jobs. Besides, after seeing that battle I can tell that you really do care about her." he stated, agreeing with the couple.

Rukia was helping some of the civilians that had been out of range of Hoshihana. When she was done she walked back over to the group to stand next to Ichigo. "I'm glad you made it here safely Inoue san" she said to Sora as Ichigo checked her for injuries which was making her rather annoyed. "ICHIGO I'M FINE!" and with that he stopped.

Ichigo gave a light sigh, "Alright, well everyone seems to be okay now. Sora, Orihime, I'm sorry to cut your reunion short but we have seven more districts to cover. We have no time to linger around here reminiscing." he said in his new, stern, learned from Byakuya voice. He looked down at Rukia, "besides, if we aren't back on time I'll be in for it" he said under his breath.

"that's alright, you have a job to do. Just promise you can come visit some time." Sora said with a smile.

Ichigo nodded, "we'll try, I'll make sure you can see Orihime again." and with that they said their goodbyes and set out to finish their rounds.

**A/N: Yes yes it's smaller then the others but hey cool idea huh? I mean Ichigo acts all cool and high and mighty like now, just wait till you see what bya kun sama has in store for him later. And Surprise! It's SORA and Kisame cool huh. Well I need some reviews and ideas, you WILL get credit. Thx for reading and pls continue. PS. I think this has been my fastest update yet, BANZAI!**

**Arigato **

**Chuu 3**

**Jingle: start comercial! XD**


	8. matchmakeing

**A/N: OK listen! I started the fic before the aizan battle and the chap before **_**that thing with Ichigo that could spoil if I say **_**it. So in my fic it did not happen. In fact, I thought it was kinda cool/sad. but I will stick to some things like the hokyoku, but yeah, you don't like it to bad. In this chapter I reveal bya kun sama's big plan. Also I added another Xover character this time from FMA. Once again you most gauss I will not mention the name but it gets obvious. Later I will ad more from other anime that are a bit less mainstream ;) good luck. Have fun. Oh and sry there is no brawl in this chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own bleach, naruto, FMA, or Death Note or the characters I only own Ame and Rima because they are OC's**

**Jingle—end commercial **

**Chapter 8: matchmaking **Not long after they returned, the four friends split up and went back to their barracks, or in Ichigo and Rukia's case, house, to rest. Well rest was the intention anyway. Every last one of them ran into some sort of conflict when arriving at their destination.

**Uryuu:**

Uryuu tiredly stumbled into the squad ten barracks, feeling the need to just crash on the futon in the lounge. Alas, that wasn't the case. The first thing to happen to the tired quincy was a harsh pat on the back, meant to be a greeting from Matsumoto. "Hey Uryuu! How was the mission in the Rukon district eh, you look pretty beat up, wasn't Orihime chan with you?" she said out of nowhere, making Uryuu's eyebrow twitch.

"I was worse, a few bruises are nothing compared to what happened in district 13." He pushed the laid back lieutenant off of him and went over to sit on the futon. "When we were leaving district 20 some brats decided to bash me with a flurry of rocks."

Rangiku sat down with him with a bottle of sake, "just you?" she asked, a little confused.

He sighed, "Rukia was up front with Ichigo who also took some hits and caught every rock that was going to hit her, and I took every rock thrown at me and Orhime."

Matsumoto brought the bottle down from her mouth and glanced at him with a devious look, "So that's how it is eh? I see. Well then," she stood up and crossed her arms under (XD) her chest "in that case I have a lot of work to do."

"Damn straight you do!" came the angry voice of a rather annoyed captain.

They both turned to the eye-twitching runt of a Captain, "Eh, c…captain, what ever do you mean by that? Heh… heh…" Rangiku said trying to get out of her paperwork while hiding the sake bottle behind her back.

"Matsumoto, what are you hiding?" toshiro asked as calmly as possible, his eye still twitching.

"What… what makes you think that captain? I don't have…" Rangiku tried to keep it hidden still, but she was cut off.

Uryuu grabbed the bottle from behind her back and tossed it to his Captain, "Honestly, why do you even have to ask captain?" he said stoically as he covered his ears and walked out of the room.

"MATSUMOTO! What did I say about drinking before you finish your paperwork? Not only that, but I believe I also made a rule that their was to be no sake around Uryuu!" Came the famous outburst between the captain and lieutenant of squad ten.

"Something tells me I wont be getting to much sleep." Uryuu thought aloud as he walked down the hall to his room.

**Orihime:**

Orihime made her way into the squad 4 barracks, A.K.A. the infirmary, to report to Captain Unohana, but when she there she discovered that the Captain was out for the day. Being the energetic girl that she was, she decided to gather up Rin and go eat lunch.

**::skip to their picnic::**

"itadake masu!" said the both of them as they opened up their bentos to reveal some noodles with wasabi paste and strawberry slices. With this they had some milk to cool down the spice from the wasabi.

"Orihime Sempai, what made you want to have lunch all of the sudden?" the little brunette asked as she took a bite of the strange, or to them delicious, meal.

Orihime swallow what was in her mouth and turned to Rin with a smile, "That's easy, I was hungry after my mission and I wanted to tell you what amazing thing happened while I was gone" she said in a hyper tone.

The mini-Orihime raised an eyebrow, "Okay, what happened?" she asked as she munched on her lunch

"I found my brother! Isn't that awesome?" She replied as she jumped up.

"Really? That's wonderful Sempai. I hope you get to see him again. It would be pretty sad if you didn't." Rin said as she took a sip of milk.

"I agree." said a voice from behind them. "I mean hey, if I were to find one of my family members I'd sure be upset if I never got to see them."

They turned to see a man with crop short black hair, a small goatee, and glasses smiling at them, "um, hi. Who are you?" Orihime asked half-witted.

Rin giggled a bit, "Orihime Sempai, this is the third seat of squad 7. Haven't you met him yet?" Orihime thought for a moment and shook her head.

"Aw, it's alright. Sometimes I forget myself. I'm so used to being called lieutenant colonel, well I guess It's actually brigadier general now, but the point is I'm not used to the whole 'third seat' thing yet." he said as he scratched the back of his head and held out his free hand to Orihime "so your Inoue chan? I've heard a lot about you and your friends and what you did during the war 3 years ago." his face dropped a bit, being reminded of the children he met when he was alive, "kids like you shouldn't have to be involved in such conflicts."

Orihime accepted his hand, "It's ok, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." she said in a sympathetic tone.

"so what brings you out here?" Rin asked as she took another bite.

The former military shinigami placed a hand on his zanpakutou and looked up to the sky with a smile, "we have patrol in a few hours. So we came out to relax for a while." he said calmly.

The girls looked over at him, "You're the only one here though, what do you mean 'we'?" Orihime asked as she looked around for this other person that was apparently supposed to be there.

"I'm talking about my darling Elisia," he said, patting the head of his sword, "If only you could see her, she's so precious. Oh how I wish I had a picture." he had gone on rambling about what was either his wife or his daughter by the sound of it. But if that was the case then why was he saying she was there.

Rin suddenly gasped as she jumped up, "oh no. Sempai, we need to get back. A unit just got back and the squad needs or help" she explained as a butterfly flew away after delivering the message.

Orihime grabbed the bentos and nodded, "alright," she smiled at the other 3rd seat, "well it nice meeting you, I hope you do well on your patrol." and with that the two made their way back to the infirmary.

**Rukia and Ichigo::**

Rukia and Ichigo proceeded down the halls of the Kuchiki manner. Rukia was in a pretty annoyed matter, eye twitching, teeth and fists clenched, and a few of those little anime vein marks on her head. Whereas Ichigo was still checking her for injuries, "Rukia, are you certain you're alright?"

"Ichigo, knock it off already! I'm fine!" Rukia shouted as she turned to him. "You've been doing this the entire way back and frankly, I'm sick of it!"

Ichigo's face was calm and stoic, much like Byakuya's. "Rukia, I didn't mean to upset you. I was just trying…" Ichigo tried explaining before he was cut off.

"Stop! Just stop it Ichigo! I've had enough of this… this… well, not you! I mean I understand your worrying about me but that's not what I'm mad about." Rukia cried as she broke into tears. "I just can't take this new attitude of yours. I know you made a deal with nii sama and all, and I know you think it's taking my mind off things, and it is, but I don't like it. Please, at least when it's just us, or just us and the old group, please be you normal self again."

Ichigo looked right at her with a shocked face that quickly became a smile. He brought a hand up and wiped away her tears. After a brief moment of silence he finally said something, "Tch, sure thing runt. To be honest, I never lost it in the first place." and with that the old Ichigo was back on his face and the same arrogant teenager that she met 4 years ago.

Rukia's face became somewhat angry and somewhat normal, well actually for her you could say it became her average 'Ichigo you idiot face', and she stomped on his foot as she clenched her fists and stiffed her arms at her sides, "BAKA! You are so dense you know that? I can't believe it took me to tell you to act like '**you**'. why is it that you couldn't just be yourself around **me** at least?" she was so, well there isn't really a word for it but pretty damn close to annoyed that she had not only began rambling but she had begun to tear up again.

Letting the pain in his foot pass him by, Ichigo gave another soft smile for a brief instant at how much it felt like their first days together. When he met her, when she showed him that threatening message on her hand on her first day of school, the juice box, when they would argue while hunting down hollows, even of her reaction to him saving her. He gave a small inward chuckle at his memories, "Alright, hold it pipsqueak, who you callin' dense? Better yet, who you callin' baka, eh, baka?" he said as he pressed is hand on top of her head like old times, simply to assure her that he got the message.

Ichigo wasn't the only one with inward thoughts. Rukia was smiling on the inside, happy that she had her old Ichigo back, but on the outside, "You of course! Baka!" she shouted back at him as invisible static made a line between their eyes.

A small amount of time passed and suddenly two broke into laughter, and after a few seconds they calmed down and sighed before smiling at each other. "Hey Rukia, I…uh….I…" he started, wanting to let her know how he felt, but at the moment he just couldn't say it. Sighing, he finished his _new _sentence " I think you should go get some rest."

This time, it was Rukia who was in shock, for what Ichigo didn't know, was that she was thinking of the same thing. She sighed, "yeah, alright. I, uh, was thinking the same thing." she lied, "But you need to more then me, you used a lot of energy this morning against that espada." she pretty much ordered, glaring at him and grabbing his collar. After he nodded she let go and was off to her room.

Ichigo sighed and turned to head toward his room, only to see Byakuya come around the corner. He quickly fixed his composure. "Byakuya sama, good afternoon. We just got back and Rukia has just gone of to her room to rest."

"Ichigo, your friends, and especially Rukia, are used to your original personality. This of course includes Renji. After what I've heard just now, you can be as casual as you wish, so long as it's only around them." Byakuya stated as Ichigo went into and out of shock in an instant.

"I understand, thank you, Byakuya sama. Now if you'll excuse me, not only did I promise Rukia I would get some rest, but I think I should as well." Ichigo calmly said as he gave a light bow and was on his way to his room.

Continuing onward in the opposite direction of the former carrot top, Byakuya did something that he very rarely ever did. He smiled, yes it was faint, but he smiled. "things are coming along perfectly." he though quietly under his breath.

**Flash back, sort of. Its Byakuya's plan basicly.::**

_"Would you mind explaining to me what you're doing here Kurosaki." Byakuya said in a low, stern, and stoic voice._

_Ichigo flinched as he realized what his current situation was, "It's not what you think… I… I was just bringing her home. She fell asleep back at the barracks and…" Ichigo cut himself off as he yawned. It had been a long day and he had yet to have any rest. Byakuya realized this, for not only did he know that lieutenant deal with mounds of paperwork, which Ichigo is horrible at, but he had been giving him his kidou exam from 5:00 to 10:00 that morning. "Sorry, I guess I should get back to the barracks." Ichigo apologized, which he rarely did to the stuck up noble. This was more than enough proof that he was beyond tired._

_"Kurosaki, there's an empty room down the hall. You may stay here for the night if you wish." Byakuya invited, unexpectedly. _

_Ichigo was stunned, was this great, noble, Kuchiki, captain, head of his family, and stuck up, actually offering hospitality. "Um…alright… thanks Byakuya." Ichigo said after blinking 2 or 3 times and heading for the specified room._

_He had never appreciated Ichigo's way of speaking to him, but he was also not one to make a scene. He had also been paying close attention to his sister's actions, mainly around Ichigo, and how she spoke when he was mentioned in conversations. He was well aware of the fact that Ichigo resembled Kaien. Now as he saw Ichigo's ink-stained hair, he could tell that Rukia must be feeling horrible at the moment. Byakuya looked into his sister's room to check on her, just as he thought, she was crying in her sleep, as she was most likely having a horrible nightmare about __**that**__ night. _

_As he left the room and made his way through the manner for his own room, Byakuya began to think about how much Ichigo had done for Rukia. He risked his life on so many occasions for her, even when they had just met. He had even gone so far as to fight him. Not only that but when everyone forgot Rukia and she forgot them, Ichigo went all out to set things right, he even invaded the manner to try and convince him. Ichigo seemed to have a very close attachment to Rukia and it was giving him a strange idea. An idea that he never thought would come about._

_He arrived in his room and sat at his desk. He grabbed a brush and some paper and began to write a letter to Ichigo. He had a hunch that the boy had feelings for his sister, and to say that she didn't in return would be idiotic. It was becoming obvious, but unfortunately like most people, neither would admit it to the other. So Byakuya started to come up with a plan._

_It was like this. Tomorrow morning he would invite Ichigo to move in but only if he doesn't hurt Rukia mentally or physically, and only if he learned some manners and how to be formal. He would teach him both. At some point Ichigo would break and he would be more polite and have more respect. And finally sooner or later they would confess their feelings to each other. _

_Byakuya never intended on remarrying and the family needed an heir. It wasn't common, but there were times when a commoner married into the family. Like Hisana, and his father. He was willing to allow that to happen again, and that's just what his plan was for Ichigo._

**A/N: Yes yes it's smaller then the others but I was brain dead, kinda. So Ichigo and Rukia are being set up by Byakuya XD. And Surprise! It's Meas Hughes from FMA cool huh. Well I need some reviews and ideas, you WILL get credit. Thx for reading and pls continue. **

**Arigato **

**Chuu 3**

**Jingle: start comercial! XD**


	9. My Christmas Gift

**A/N: Hello readers and happy holidays. This is a Christmas special but still VERY important AKA not a filler. I hope you enjoy it came to me as I was looking at anime Christmas pictures. I literally started on the 20****th**** and am post it on the 25****th****/24****th**** depends. This is my Christmas present to you all so have fun. XD**

**Disclaimer: I do not own bleach, death note, naruto, nor full metal alchemist, or the characters. I only own my oc's, Rima and Ame.**

**Jingle, end commercial.**

**Chapter 9: My Christmas gift**

"What are you talking about Ichigo?" Renji asked as the two of them finished sparring. He sheathed Zabimaru and sat in the snow under a nearby tree.

Ichigo went over and joined him as he pulled out a thermos-like item and poured each of them some hot tea. "I mean exactly what I said Renji. What are you getting Rukia for Christmas?" He asked again. Renji gave him a confused look and took a sip of tea. "You're kidding, you don't know what Christmas is? Oh wow is this gonna be hard to get used to." he said, scratching the back of his head.

"well why not explain it to me then genius?" Renji sarcastically replied to his rival.

Ichigo gave a big sigh, "Alright but know questions and know interruptions. What I say is what I know, got it?" he said as he pushed down on the others head and stared him in the eye with a sort of "you hearin' me punk?" look.

Swatting Ichigo's hand away, he quickly head butted him and backed away, "Sure whatever but never do that again, I'm not Rukia."

Ichigo brought a hand up began rubbing away the pain, "yeah well, ain't my ol' man, so you don't do that again either." he retaliated as he shook off the subject. " alright so to explain Christmas. First, it's a big holiday in the world of the living. It's a day when friends and families get together to celebrate," he paused wondering how to put it, seeing how he was in soul society and all, "Well, it's a very spiritual holiday. People call it the time of giving. This is because on the night before, gifts are placed under a tree and the next morning the friends and family gather around and exchange the gifts. On top of that, that night they have a big dinner." he explained as best he could.

"Nice. Sounds fun." Renji said, drinking some more tea, "so I need to get my friends gifts then? Alright." he added as he got up and stretched, " well in that case I'm off. See ya later Ichigo." and with that he left.

As Renji left Ichigo got up as well and stared out at the sky as the cold winter air blew his dark chocolate colored hair, which was now an inch past shoulder length and therefore tied back, in front of his face. "What was I thinking, of course there wouldn't be Christmas here. None-the-less, I'm going to get her something. Something special." he thought aloud to himself as he walked off, back toward his office in the barracks.

It had been a few months since the scouting mission and was now December. Ichigo was starting to adjust to his new personality and his new life. He had yet to find a reason to cut his hair, in fact he felt he fit in better this way. This wasn't the only thing growing on him though. He was starting to realize his feelings for Rukia, and starting to build up the confidence to tell her. When he remembered Christmas was coming he decided that would be the perfect day to tell her.

As he approached his office he noticed Light and Ryuzaki walking his way, "Good afternoon, Yagami kun, Ryuzaki kun. What brings you here, have you discovered something" he said in his new, more formal tone.

Light Smiled and slowly shook his head, "No lieutenant Kurosaki, sorry. The thing is we came by to ask you for your permission to have a Christmas party for the squad." he said simply.

"We already know that you know this holiday, do to how young you are. We also thought it would be a nice opportunity for you and Kuchiki san to…" Ryuzaki was saying before Ichigo cut him off.

"As much as I would like it, I cannot allow a Christmas party. There is to much going on right now. If this is just some plan for getting Rukia and me together, please stop, I have that taken care of." Ichigo said coolly, "Now if that's all, I have work to get done." he said as he passed by them and entered his office.

As Ichigo left them, the pair sighed and walked off. "He sure has changed hasn't he Ryuzaki?" light mentioned as they walked away.

"you have to remember why though Yagami kun, he is living with nobles after all." Ryuzaki reminded him and light just nodded.

/

**3 days later-**

Brushing the snow from his shoulder, Uryu stepped into the infirmary where Orihime and Isane were taking care of a babbling, cut up Hughes and a silent Haku whom had gotten his achilles tendon cut in his last fight. "Excuse me, Lieutenant Kotetsu. Could I borrow Orihime for a couple hours?" He asked with a soft smile.

Isane looked up as she bandage up Haku, "Well suppose, but what for? Are going out for supplies or something?"

"No but that is a good idea." he said as he walked over and whispered something to her.

Isane's face lit up as she clapped her hands together, "I don't entirely understand the whole Christmas thing but if that's part of it the I find it to be a wonderful idea. Go ahead you two and have fun." (A/N: Uryu is a gentleman so no, 'that's' not his gift just to get that out your heads. v.v and mine XD)

Hughes stopped his rambling when heard this, "Oh? So you must be Ishida san, Inoue chan just got done telling me about you a while ago." he gave a small chuckle and leaned in the best he could to be face to face with Uryu. "Don't you ever leave her ya got that boy? She's a good girl, so ya better take good care of her. And if you plan on leaving once yer done I'll…" he was cut off.

"THAT'S NOT WHAT WE"RE GONNA DO YOU IDIOT!" Uryu snapped, making the former soldier move away. "who are you anyway?"

Hughes blinked a few times, "Oh, I'm third seat, Maes Hughes of squad 7. Nice to meet you." he said, holding his hand out.

Taking the man's hand Uryu laughed, "Sorry I snapped at you. I'm Uryu Ishida seat 3, squad 10." Uryu then looked over at Orihime , "Let's go Orihime I have a surprise for you."

Orihime looked over him with a confused face, "But Uryu, I have work to do."

After telling Haku that he was all set but needed to rest for a few days Isane smiled at Orihime, "I'll take care of it Orihime chan, you go on ahead."

"Really? Oh thank you Insane san." Orihime said as she got up, giddy as a school girl. She then ran over and hugged Uryu tightly. "Uryu what is it? What's the surprise?" she asked as they walked off.

Uryu gave a light chuckle and held her close to keep her warm as they walked threw the snow. "I cant tell you, if I did it wouldn't be a surprise." and with that they made their way out to Rukongai.

When they reached district 13 Uryu stopped, "Orihime wait here for a minute okay?" he saw her nod in response and smiled, "I'll be right back." he assured her as he walked off toward one of the small family cottages.

As she waited Orihime noticed a lot of the citizens looking at her. Suddenly a young boy about 5 ran over to her, "Hi, miss shinigami person, you were the girl that protected us from that mean shark monster aren't you?"

Orihime blinked as she thought back and smiled when she remembered. Kneeling down to beat eye level with the boy she replied, "Yes I was, but all I did was shield you my friend did all the hard stuff."

The boy shook his head, "No, you saved us. Big brother said you were very brave. Thank you for saving him, without brother we would have to find a new family." he said full of gratitude that Orihime couldn't understand.

Just then Uryu came back with his gift, "Merry Christmas Orihime, I went through a lot to get the permission to come out here with you. I promised you two would see each other again so this is my present to you." he explained with a joyous smile on his face as Sora went to hug his long lost sister whom was shedding tears of joy.

The boy that was there was confused. "Big brother its ok, I said thank you already" he said thinking that his 'brother' was happy see her so he could thank her for saving his life. He was unaware that they were in fact actual siblings.

Sora looked at the child and laughed, "that's not it Riku, I'm just glad to see her because she's my little sister." he then looked over at Orihime again and smiled, "we didn't get to talk last time. You've really grown haven't you." he said with a smile. He then motioned at Riku, "This is Riku. I'm sure you know that here in the Rukongai we tend to form small families. Well this you could say is my little brother."

Orihime went into a very sudden cheery mode, "really? Oh nii san he's so adorable. I'm so happy I got to come out and see you again." she chirped and turned to embrace Uryu, "Thank you so much Uryu this is the best Christmas present ever!" and with that, without even thinking, she kissed him and the two of them had a sudden look of shock on their faces.

The shock quickly turned into a type of calm ease as Uryu gave her another small peck, "come on, lets get out of the snow. We can talk inside where its warm" and with that the four of them went off toward to little house. (I know there is no heating device, he means a fire pit.)

/

Back in the Seireitei, Renji had taken the liberty of explaining Christmas to not only his squad members but to some of his other friends as well, such as matsumoto and her party people. By now the event was knowledgeable throughout the whole Seireitei and every squad was participating.

Soi fon was curious about the event and allowed Omadai to have a party so long as she could get Yoruichi to come, which she did after convincing her that Urahara had to be welcome as well. Haku was slightly disappointed at missing it himself but he let it pass as soon as it came and decided to wait for next year.

Minato had joined up with Shunsui and Juushiro to plan a joint party with three squads. After hearing this Light and Ryuzaki went straight to decorating, seeing who could do a better job. They even decorated a tree. Of course, when Ichigo found out about it he decided he might as well help with the food.

Squad four might not have had the time to celebrate but they did decide to do something. After Isane had been told the WHOLE story about Christmas she decided that they may as well light some candles and what not. She even made holiday dangos to give as presents. (they were red white and green with powder suger) Hanataro and Rin decided that since the patients were missing out they would give each one a holiday dango stick and one cup of sake.

Ame and Rima also decided to have a joint squad party. Momo of course was against it but Shuhei cheered her up by saying she could always go and join squad ten. This party was slightly different then the others due to the fact that Ame had to make a boy girl distance rule. This was because either Rima was snuggling with Shuhei, or Shuhei was so drunk he would start to grope Rima. Seeing this responsible act Momo decide she may as well stay to see how thing played out, but not before delivering a gift to Toshiro.

As for squad six, oh did Renji ever get the biggest surprise of his life. Not only did Byakuya ALLOW the event, but he suggested Renji host any gathering he wished for the squad while he was busy hosting a Christmas dinner for the Kuchiki house and a few friends. Renji was shocked at the suggestion but quickly accepted and then of course handed his captain a gift.

Squad seven was festive yes, but Kumamura was beginning to get annoyed with his gifts. Chew toys, dog bones, branches (sticks). Yes everyone was giving him these things so he decided to leave. That however was a bad idea because now Hughes became a human autobiography. Do to this everyone that wasn't already drunk decided to hurry and GET drunk.

After Toshiro made sure the paperwork was done, he granted Matsumoto permission to have a party do to the fact that Uryu was gone. Just like Kumamura getting attacked by dog toys, Toshiro was attacked by candies, sweet cakes, and toys. The only one he even really accepted was the one from Momo.

Squad eleven decided that instead of exchanging gifts they would exchange challenges. As the squad battled out Zaraki ran off in search of Ichigo, and of course got lost therefore never finding him. Yachiru stayed behind this time and watched the battles happily as she ate her presents.

Hearing of this "Christmas" intrigued Kurotsuchi greatly. So much that he actually had the squad research everything about it. Afterward he decided to try this "Christmas" idea. So the whole squad didn't have a party but instead an actual Christmas, with everything. Tree, gifts, dinner, and singing, the works.

/

The joint party of squads 3, 8, and 13 was going fine. Light and Ryuzaki exchanged gifts and immediately went to exchanging glares. You see, Ryuzaki received "healthy food" and Light Received a notebook. Jiraiya and Shunsui were drunk and observing the girls, while Nanao and Minato simply allowed it do to the occasion. As for Ukitake, he had to turn in early do to his illness catching up again.

Ichigo was trying hard to enjoy himself but was disappointed that Rukia wasn't there. That is until she ran in and right over to speak to him. "Ichigo, we have to go. Nii sama has arranged a Christmas dinner." she said as she nearly dragged him out.

Ichigo smiled, at least one person got the idea, apparently Renji made everyone think it was some national party day. When they were just outside the door Ichigo stopped and turn Rukia to look at him, "Rukia, I need to tell you something. It's important and I thought this would be a good day to tell you, and I don't want to lose my chance so…here goes." he paused and took a breath, "Rukia, I…" he was cut of when the door opened and Byakuya was standing there.

"Come inside, dinner will be served soon and I don't believe you should be out there in the cold." one would normally think he was speaking to Rukia, however they could both tell that he was indeed speaking to them both. He then turned and walked back inside, setting at the head of the table.

Ichigo fixed his composure as he and Rukia walked in as well. He gazed at the table and saw the entire household was present. He also noticed as they walked over to their seats and sat down, that there were three extra seats right next to his. Right as the two of them sat down there was a light knock at the door and one of the servants opened it to reveal the three special guests. Ichigo realized that they must be the people meant to sit in the open spaces. He took a look over to see who they were and was holding in his shock when he saw them. Two 14 year old girls one with orange hair, one with black, and a middle aged shinigami with what looked like a captains haori tied to his shoulder.

As the man sat beside Ichigo, the girls beside him, he gave a small grin and made an attempt to jab him in the ribs as Ichigo blocked with his hand and simply let out a light sigh, "What are you doing here dad?" He questioned quietly in his new voice, and receiving questing looks from the three of them. "I know what you're going to ask. My answer is that it's a long story and to please just deal with it." he added, hoping that would do for both the hair and the personality.

Before any answer could be made, Byakuya spoke up, "Before we begin our meal, I have a few announcements to make." He paused and stood up from his seat, "First, as we have all been informed, today is a special holiday in the world of the living. One where friends and families come together and be spiritual, they exchange gifts and join together to enjoy a special meal together. From now on, we will always celebrate this holiday. Next, I would like to present two gifts. The first one for Kurosaki, I have asked that his family be able to be present for this occasion." he clarified as he motioned toward them, "The second for both my sister and for Kurosaki, I give them my blessing should anything come up." With this Rukia blushed inwardly and Ichigo lost a shade of color in his skin. Byakuya was using Christmas to his advantage, and using it well. "That is all I have to say, now let us enjoy our first Christmas meal." he finished as he sat down and the food was brought in.

Ichigo thought to himself, _so that's what his plan is. _he glanced at Rukia, _I have to tell her, I have to tell her tonight._ Just then Yuzu looked over at him, "Ichi nii, can I ask you something?" she said quietly and sweetly, and when he simply nodded she continued. "Why is your hair black, barely recognized you."

With this Rukia brought a hand to her mouth to cover her chuckle as Ichigo just sighed in expectation. "I spilled some ink in it a little over a year ago. I tried to wash it out and grow it out but it stained my roots so the best I could do is get it to this light black. As for the other question you two plan on asking," he took a breath wondering how to put it, "I'll explain after dinner."

Karin was the next to speak, "You know, Ichigo, you're kinda acting like a…" before she could say that last word that would lead to regret, Ishiin placed a hand on her shoulder.

"This isn't a schoolyard Karin. Take a look around, this is a house of nobles. You need to watch what you say." he whispered to his daughter.

Karin looked around and noticed that everyone, even Ichigo and Rukia had that classy high society look about them. She didn't need to wait until after dinner for her brother to explain things. She put the pieces together right there. He had become a part of Rukia's family, that's why they were invited as well. That was why he was acting so superior, because to them, and to probably many others, he was. "Sorry." she said as she ate her meal.

Ichigo had heard what his father told her and decided it best he didn't react to her comment, "Thank you for stopping her dad." he said just low enough for Ishiin to hear.

Rukia had been quietly eating this whole time, trying to overcome her brothers 'gift', "Ichigo, you were saying something to me earlier. What was it you wanted to tell me?" well she asked hopefully.

Ishiin raised an eyebrow wait for what his son would say. Ichigo barely held in a blush and looked over at her, "Rukia, now is not the best time. I'll tell you after dinner I promise." and with that the family enjoy their first Christmas dinner.

/

**After dinner-**

Immediately after dinner, and after everyone left, Ichigo explained everything that had happened in the past two years. Along with how they were all getting along and what the new problem was. He explained his situation with Byakuya, which Karin and Yuzu were glad to hear, now knowing they hadn't lost the Ichigo that they knew and loved. (its just them so he is acting himself when he explains) Finally, he explained his theory behind Byaukya's 'gift' and why he was fine with all of this. After that part of course came a simultaneous "I KNEW IT!" from Karin and Ishiin.

The three were able welcome to stay with them until new year's, and so they were soon escorted to their rooms, leaving Ichigo and Rukia to themselves.

Ichigo took Rukia's hand "come with me." he said as he dragged her out into to garden the was now full of snow. "Rukia, do you know what my favorite thing about winter is?' He said in a soft voice.

She shook her head slowly, "No, but, I want to know?" she responded quietly.

He brushed some snow from her shoulder, "it's the snow." he answered in that same soft tone as he embraced her, "Its makes me think of you. It reminds me… of how beautiful you are. And, how it can never compare." he said as he then backed away and look her in the eye, "Rukia, I love you."

Rukia stayed silent as she began to unknowingly shed tears of joy, "Ichigo…I…I feel the same, when I look at the moon. I'm so glad, you told me… because… I love you too, Ichigo."

Just a moment after she said it, Ichigo decide it was time he give her the second part of her gift form him and tenderly touched his lips to hers, and she gladly accepted it. From inside a small room just outside the garden, a smiling brother watched in secrecy and happiness. Happy that his plan had worked, and happy for his little sister.

When they finaly pulled away Ichigo smiled at her, "Merry Christmas Rukia."

/

**A/N: Yay for the romantic comedy Christmas special. I stayed up for 2 nights writing this to catch the deadline. I hope you all got the concept. Mainly with Ichigo's confession.**

**Snow= Rukia has the most beautiful ice/snow zanpakutou ever and it means sleeve of the white snow.**

**Moon=Ichigo's zanpakutou means cutting moon our something**

**Any how merry Christmas and happy new year.**

**Jingle, start commercial.**


	10. The Arrangement

**AN: OMG! Hello all! I'm Back! After a year of crashing computers, lost files, writer's block, and continuous chapter idea changes. But here it is and I hope enjoy. Oh, and there a plot twist coming up in later chapters ;) BANKAI! AUTHER STYLE!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own bleach, death note, fma, naruto, or any athor anime that may yet appear. Nor do I own the charecters, I only have claim on my OC's, Ame and Rima.**

**Jingle, end commercial.**

**Chapter 10- The Arrangement**

The moonlit endless night had been darker then usual lately. This however gave a certain red-eyed arrancar spy with half a mask over his nose and eyes resembling that of a weasel's face, the perfect edge he needed to cross the borders of territory unseen. He stopped behind a large rock as he blended into the shadows even more then he already was. After glancing behind to check that nobody had seen and followed him, he sat against the boulder to rest. "Alright, I got passed the border. Now I just have to find Nel deliver the information." He uttered under his breath. After a few minutes he got up and continued to make his way across the bloodstained dessert that was Hueco Mundo.

**Meanwhile in Soul Society-**

It was just a six weeks since Christmas had passed and things were calming down a little. Orihime had been given permission to visit Sora once per vacation period (about two weeks long per month) as long as she had a seated officer with her. Uryu still got into occasional brawls among his squad members but now they would make up and laugh about it halfway through, they were more like bonding sessions now rather than fights. As for Ichigo and Rukia:

Ichigo made his way down the hall to meet with Byakuya in his study. When he got there he noticed that Byakuya was making some sort of list. "You wanted to speak to me Byakuya-sama?" he said in a calm tone.

Byakuya looked up from what he doing and gave a small inward smile; it was time to complete the plan he'd been working on for such a long time now. "Ichigo, you have been living with us for nearly a year. It's time I mentioned another condition, should you wish to continue doing so." he said as he motioned for Ichigo to sit.

"Another condition?" Ichigo questioned with a small amount of confusion, "Have I done something wrong?" Ichigo, being who he as now maintained his composure, although he was indeed worried.

Byakuya lightly chuckled to himself for he actually found Ichigo's reaction quite amusing, "On the contrary, you've actually been doing better than I had expected, but that is beside the point." Byakuya paused and took a sip of his tea, "Ichigo, this is a reserved residence for the Kuchiki family, and I am certain you are well aware that as a noble family we have a high reputation to uphold. I for one do not think that allowing a commoner, even a well-respected one, to simply continue to live with us would serve well to that. Due to this," He paused and finally set down his cup, "if you do wish to stay there is only thing to do."

Ichigo's eyes widened for a brief moment before returning to normal, "Should I see this as an arrangement, or an invitation?" He asked knowing exactly what was happening, and to be honest, he was pretty happy.

"Both. The gift I gave to you two was my blessing. I've spoken to Rukia and I have already made arrangements." Byakuya said, stopping to give Ichigo time for things to soak in, "The ceremony will be taking place next week. You are dismissed."

Ichigo bowed before standing up to leave, "Thank you, Byakuya-sama. I promise you, you will not regret this."

Just as Ichigo stood to leave, a hell butterfly flew into the room, -"Lieutenant Ichigo Kurosaki, your presence is required at the department of research and development,"- it reported just before flying away.

Ichigo pondered the reasons why he would be needed, but cast it aside when he decided it didn't matter, he had been summoned and he could not back down. "I suppose I will be back tonight," he said as Byakuya nodded and continued with his list. Ichigo then left and shunpoed over to the lab.

**Research and development-**

"Captain, are you sure about this? I mean, to trust a hollow?" Sasori questioned with a void yet agitated look on his face. After all, he did hate to wait on people.

"Ah but you must look at things differently. As a scientist we must consider all possibilities." Said Kurotsuchi in that well-known, creepy, "Kurotsuchi" voice. "Nemu, record the data into the main computer."

Nemu, who was at his side just behind him, bowed, "Yes sir." and made her way to the computer.

It was just then that Ichigo walked in, "You wanted to see me Captain?" he asked, shifting his eyes to take a brief but through look around.

Kurotsuchi turned and sat at the computer that had the giant monitor screen and began to type away, "Back when I was observing Hueco Mundo after we came to assist you during the war, I set up a bunch of two way cameras all over the place for further research. I must have lost interest in whatever my ideas were though because I had completely forgotten about them." Finally he turned on the big screen and started scanning through channels, which appeared to be different areas of Hueco Mundo, "This may take a while, Sasori please continue explaining."

Sasori motioned at the screen, "The things that are happing on this screen are taking place as we speak, however it also records almost everything. A few hours ago, a stumbled across some sort of distress call from a hollow woman." he then look at Ichigo, "I for one don't trust her, but she said to call you and that you could vouch for her." He said as the channels finally stopped changing.

On the screen were three arrancar, there ratings on the side of the screen. One was a level 6, adjuches based espada. Another was a level 4, vasto lordes based espada. The last one was a level 3, adjuches based espada. It wasn't long before Ichigo recognized two of them. A female with long, curly green hair and a helmet-like, ram skull mask with a purple mark across her face. The other one he recognized even more so, an arrogant looking male with crop short blue hair and a toothy grin covered partially by the half jawbone mask. Soon the woman noticed the connection and came over to the monitor, "Ichigo! Oh it's been so long, how are you, your hair has changed, is that really you? No wait, no time for that I must tell you something."

Ichigo sighed lightly as he approached the screen, just as he remembered her, this was deffinantly Nel, "And I thought my hair _used_ to give me problems. Nel, before you say anything, we already know that hollows of all sorts and levels have risen in power and I am certain you have as well. Now I've heard of a distress call from you. Please explain."

Surprised at Ichigo's tone, Nel had a confused look on her face for a moment. Was this really Ichigo, he didn't seem like the Ichigo she knew. He didn't have that arrogance and childishness about him, and his hair made her doubt it was him most of all. But it had to be him, no other shinigami knew who she was. None of that mattered right now that is; though there were more important things to take care of. "We aren't just getting stronger Ichigo, some of the hollows that were destroyed by you guys years ago are coming back somehow. And that's not all, some of us have decided suddenly that we aren't going to eat human souls anymore; we aren't even trying to get stronger. We don't know why we're feeling this way but now we're on the brink of a civil war with those who remain the same as always. We were hoping we could get your help," she explained.

This news startled Ichigo greatly especially since it was coming from Nel, she may be a hollow, but he trusted her. "I am not sure about anyone else, but I personally owe you for the help you were to us when we were trying to rescue Orihime. I will talk to the head captain."

Sasori stepped over to the screen, "please excuse my interruption, but the level 4 in the back there, I'd like to speak to you."

The red-eyed espada with the weasel mask stood and walked over to the monitor. "I must say, this is rather interesting. You of all people, a shinigami." he said mockingly.

"Uchiha, so that's where you ended up, not that I care. Just tell me something, who else will I be seeing again, Lieutenant Kurosaki already went up against Kisame, based off of the report. Who should we expect to come across that you know of?" Sasori questioned.

"From the enemy side, you can expect everyone excluding Pain and Konan. That includes Orochimaru and Kabuto," the other answered with ease.

Ichigo was starting to get confused, "You know each other? Sasori would mind explaining what's going on?" He asked as he got a glance from the one now known as Uchiha.

"You must be Lieutenant Kurosaki, my name is Itachi Uchiha. You're correct, in our living days, Sasori and I were in an organization together. He said you fought Kisame, that would explain why we haven't seen him." The espada said as he introduced himself. "Kisame was also in the organization, in fact he was my partner. I can imagine the challenge."

Ichigo began to recall the battles he'd fought recently, "We've gone up against many challenging enemy's, If I did face him, he never mentioned his name." He said in a somewhat bored manner.

Sasori looked over at Ichigo after hearing this, "Kisame was the one the absorbed raitsu." he explained with his empty tone of voice.

Ichigo nodded, "That's right, I remember him now. He was the shark hollow that almost wiped out district 13." He recalled before looking back at Itachi. "So I'm guessing that when you say everyone, you are referring to those from your organization?"

"There are seven left from our past on the enemy side. However, there are more of course, these are just the ones we knew." Itachi said as he began to explain, "Deidara, Sasori's old partner," he started as he glanced at the puppet master.

Sasori sighed, "Deidara was a fool, but when he knew what he was doing he was strong." He said as he looked to Ichigo, "If he still fights the same, and something tells me he does, he will use clay explosives."

Itachi nodded, "True, we all have the same abilities from before, plus a few more. Deidara is nothing compared to the others though." he confirmed as he pulled out a small book. "Hidan and Kakuzu will be difficult to take down as well. Hidan has reached level 0 and Kakuzu level 1. That's all I know, except that Hidan was once immortal and that if he lands a physical attack your fate is sealed. It's also possible that Kakuzu still has to be beaten 5 times but that was based off of having 5 hearts so i doubt it, he can however still detach and reattach his limbs. As for Zetsu and Madara," He paused at the thought of Madara, he was one of the main reasons he hated going undercover, "They're both in the negatives, though I'm not sure how low. "I'm afraid I have no information on Zetsu's abilities but Madara I must warn you about. Beware of his gaze, he can place you under an illusion so drastic that very few minds can sustain it. He is also able to..." as he was explaining a loud crash was heard in the background. "I'm sorry but we have trouble and I can't be seen, Sasori, please fill him in on Kabuto and Orochimaru." And with that he was gone and the other two had left as well.

Sasori sighed as he turned off the monitor, "After hearing that information, i can be pretty certain that Orochimaru will be the weakest of the organization members we'll be coming across. It's Kabuto that worries me." He said as he entered the new information into the computer.

Ichigo's eyes narrowed in worry, "You knew them right, do you have any ideas on what their abilities might turn out to be?" He asked as he walked over to the computer.

Sasori stopped for a moment to think about how to explain things, "I do, but It's difficult to explain." He began as he turned around in the chair, "I would have to begin with where we lived."

"Oh my this should quite interesting indeed." Kurotsuchi said as he took a seat, "I've been waiting to hear this for some time now."

"It was a completely different world then the one we've be taking care of. It was a world where being a shinobi was the most common thing around. there were 5 main countries each with a major ninja village along with a few smaller villages in-between. Everyone in the organization was a S class criminal from one of those villages. I don't know every ones story but some of us had our reasons. For example, Uchiha did it to help his brother. But that's beside the point. To understand them, especially Kabuto, you'll need to know about chakra." Sasori explained as he brought up a diagram that he had made some time ago, knowing that sooner or later he would've had this discussion with his captain.

Ichigo looked confused for a moment, "Ninja? That explains some of the new squad members. Alright so explain chakra then, what is it?" He asked as he remembered how some of the newer shinigami fought.

Sasori motioned at the diagram, "Chakra is a blend of physical energy and spiritual energy. Everyone has what's called a chakra network. This allows the energy to flow throughout the body and be used at various locations, such as the feet, the mouth, the palm, and the fingertips." He said as he let thin threads of what was apparently chakra, flow from the tips of his fingers. He then canceled the affect as he continued speaking, "We use chakra for many reasons, Sealing, Healing, traveling, activating certain objects such as paper bombs, and mainly Jutsu. A Jutsu is a special skill or technique. The common ones are clones and transformations, but there are also secret techniques known only by the creator and the apprentices or passed through the family. When Uchiha mentioned Madara's gaze he was referring to his Sharingan, It has many abilities, mainly genjustu or illusions, but much more realistic."

Ichigo was beginning to get the idea, "How does he know for sure that this Madara still has that ability?" He questioned as he observed the diagram.

"I would think it's because he also still possess it. They come from the same family line and that ability comes with it." Sasori explained as he turned back to the computer. "Now, to explain Orochimaru and Kabuto. Orochimaru had a goal to achieve every justu ever made, he was always transferring his soul into a new body, so that he could live long enough to do so. The jutsu he used mainly included snakes and poisons. As for Kabuto, he was a medical specialist. He understood poisons, the human anatomy, the chakra network, and was a very devious spy." He paused as he thought about it some more, "He was able to recover quickly by rearranging his cells, and fought by disconnecting the enemy's chakra network and attacking the internal organs. I worry mostly because when Orochimaru died, Kabuto absorbed all of his power."

After hearing the end of the explanation and seeing the well-made diagram Mayuri's eyes were wide with interest. I was going to have to do a little experiment on his third seat later to learn more about this 'chakra'. "Oh my, how intriguing. Sasori I'd like to see you later in the main lab." he said as he got up and made his way there to prepare things, "Lieutenant Kurosaki, please relay this information to Head Captain Yamamoto."

Ichigo nodded as the scientist left, and took a freshly written file from the red headed former ninja. After thanking him and bidding him farewell, Ichigo left the research and development lab as well as the squad 12 barracks. He was glad to be out of there too. He didn't mind the learning but the look on Kurotsuchi's face was making him uneasy.

As he walked, he looked at the file and thought of what Nel and Itachi had said. There was going to be a civil war in Hueco Mundo and that sound in the background sounded pretty convincing. He also recalled that Itachi said he couldn't be seen, this made him rather curious. Putting all matters aside he decided to make his way to squad 1 to deliver the information.

**Squad 1-**

"Lieutenant Kurosaki, this is quite interesting information indeed. Due to our current situation with the "aftershock", we must be extremely cautious of who we choose for our allies. What makes you trust what this hollow women says is true?" Captain Yamamoto said after hearing the information that Ichigo had received at research and development.

Ichigo gave a light nod, "During the war, when Inoue Orihime was being held hostage, this particular hollow, Nelliel Tu Oduschvonk, assisted us to all extents. She guided us into Los Noches, she warned us of our enemy's strengths, and she protected Inoue during one of my battles. I know that it would best to not believe a hollow, especially one of her level, but I honestly think we can trust her." He said calmly as he explained things about Nel. To tell the truth, he was nervous, this was his first time delivering information directly to the head captain on his own and he didn't want to slip up; not now, deffinently not now of all times.

The ancient head captain pandered over Ichigo's words for a moment. He had to admit, Ichigo was not only not one to lie, but his hunches were pretty much always right. "Very well then, Lieutenant Kurosaki, you will lead a reconiscence team into Hueco Mundo, two weeks from now, to investigate and confirm this information. You seem to know the most about this woman; therefore it is only logical that you lead the team. Once confirmed, I will send a following team in to assist you on the first shift of the alliance."

Ichigo bowed after hearing the commander's orders, "Thank you for understanding sir." he said in his new sophisticated tone.

The old man nodded, "You are dismissed." He said as Ichigo bowed again and began to take his leave, but just as he opened the door, "Oh, and Lieutenant. I congratulate you." Yamamoto said, making Ichigo stop dead in his track for a brief moment.

During his pause his face went from shock to a familiar smirk, _I guess that explains what he was working on earlier._ He thought to himself along with an inward chuckle, he then put his noble mask back on and turned to give the old man a highly light smile, "Thank you head captain. Now if you will excuse me I have something to take care of." and with that Ichigo took his leave.

Once the Lieutenant was gone, Yamamoto let out a sigh and gave and inward smile, "He sure is dedicated, to try so hard at changing who he is, but he can't fool us old folks. He'll always be the reckless child he once was." he thought aloud as he recalled the Ichigo that was once rebellious and ill mannered. Ichigo may have changed, but there were still those small glimpses of the old him and with the commander's old age, he could see through the mask all too well.

**Meanwhile-**

Captain Ukitake sat in his room, recovering from not only another attack but a cold along with it. Gazing out the window at the snow filled, squad 13 garden, he took a sip of tea and looked up at the evening sky to see a full moon beginning to appear, and smiled. _"It won't be long now, they've been practically inseparable for the past six weeks." _He thought to himself as he put the cup down. Just then, the dynamic duo known as Sentaro and Kiyone came charging and arguing in.

"Captain I have an important message for you sir!" Sentaro nearly shouted.

Kiyone suddenly shoved the other aside, "No captain! I have a message for you! This idiot will probably mess it up!" She said, glaring at her partner.

"WHAT!" Sentaro shouted as he shouted in her face. "What makes you I would screw up an important message like this?"

"Simple, this particular message doesn't strike your interest in the slightest. I however, am a girl, and I find it to be a wonderful thing." She said matter-of-factly.

Juushiro chuckled lightly and held out his hand to stop the bickering, "Now, what's all this about?" he asked in a calm tone.

"Rukia and Ichigo are getting married!" the two said together as they handed their captain a letter.

Raising an eyebrow in curiosity, the bedridden captain took the invitation, smiling as he read it.

_Captain Ukitake Juushiro of the 13th division of the 13 court guard squads,_

_You are cordially invited to attend the marriage ceremony of squad 13 member, Kuchiki Rukia and squad 13 Lieutenant, Kurosaki Ichigo of the 13 court guard squads. This event will take place at the Kuchiki manner, in the main garden, on first day of spring. _

_Sincerely, Captain Kuchiki Byakuya, 28th head of the Kuchiki house._

After reading the last line, Juushiro let out a small chuckle. _He's so full of himself, sometime I wonder if he really isn't anything like the arrogant child he once was. _He thought just before placing the invitation aside. "I must say, it's about time." He stated as he grabbed his tea. "Apparently one of you read my mail." He mentioned as he took a sip and peeked a curious eye at them over the cup.

The two twitched lightly and looked at their captain, and then each other, dumb founded. Immediately pointing at each other they began shouting in unison, "SHE/HE DID IT! NO I DIDN"T! IT WAS YOUR IDEA! WAS NOT!" and other various things.

Ukitake just gave a chuckle and toned them out as he looked out at the snow again with a smile, thinking of the future that awaited his subordinates.

**Jingle, begin commercial:**

**AN: So how was it, good right? Well any who… I have an idea for the next few chapters but I still love ideas from my reviewers. The reviews I get that is . I promise I wont take a year again. See you soon ;) -Chuu-**


	11. What Every Child Needs

**AN: Ok, sorry for the wait I was at a convention! Im very happy because I met someone who knows kubo sensei and she said that he read the fanfics we write. But that's not all she says that my oc might be used in the series, edited a bit and a different name but still. Kubo sensei if you are reading this right now THANK SO MUCH AND I FEEL SO HONORED. So here's the new chapter BANKAI! AUTHER STYLE!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own bleach, death note, fma, naruto, or any other anime that may yet appear. Nor do I own the characters, I only have claim on my OC's, Ame and Rima, in fact no I surrender my claim on Ame to kubo sensei****.**

**Jingle, end commercial.**

**Chapter 11- What every child needs**

There was but one day left before the wedding and the invitations had been sent. One to nearly every captain and a few lieutenants were left out as well. For instance, Captain's Zaraki and Kurostuchi weren't even informed and had learned through their squads, and Yachiru was banned from the Kuchiki residence for obvious reasons. As for Ichigo, he was still comprehending the fact he was about to get married to the woman that changed his life; or rather, still changing his life.

Gazing out at the garden that was just blossoming into spring, Ichigo sat on the patio with a dazed look in his eyes as the cool breeze blew through his black locks. He was grateful that the recognizance in Hueco Mundo wasn't until after the wedding, and once again his family had been invited as were Orihime and Uryu, but he felt something was missing.

It was just then that two delicate arms draped around his shoulders as a soft hair topped head nuzzled into his neck. "What's wrong Ichigo?" Rukia asked in a soft and tender voice.

Shifting the position so that she was now on his lap, Ichigo began to stroke her hair as he left a kiss on her forehead, "it's nothing you need to worry about." He said in a hushed tone and took her cheek in his hand and looked in the eyes, "Besides, there's nothing we could do about it anyway, so why don't we just enjoy what we _have_ accomplished" He suggested as he gazed deep into those violet orbs.

"Rukia," came a peculiar, stoic voice from the doorway behind them. "the tailor needs you to be fitted for your kimono."

Rukia sighed lightly and stood up. She was appreciative of her brother not only arranging, but taking care of the ordeals for the wedding, but she hated the custom made attire part. She had been in for measurements, again for fitting; they then had to restart because it was too small. This had happened 4 times now and if it wasn't right this time she was likely to achieve bankai out of sheer frustration and kill the seamstress. "Thank you nii sama, hopefully nothing goes wrong this time." She said as she bowed and left to be 'tortured'.

Ichigo glanced over his shoulder to see his future brother-in-law still there, "you wanted to speak to me?" He asked in a respectful yet 'put the pieces together' tone.

Byakuya walked over to stand beside Ichigo. "You seem distracted. Surely you aren't having second thoughts?" he calmly asked with a slight glare. If that were indeed the case, squad 13 would be in need of a new lieutenant.

Ichigo shook his head lightly, and stood as the breeze blew past him again. "I would never think twice about marrying Rukia. I will admit though, that something is troubling me." He said as he walked over to the koi pond, wondering why the number had decreased when he got there.

As Byakuya joined him he noticed the decrease as well and made a mental note to set 'Yachiru traps' later. "Whatever it is, it needs to be overcome. Your dreary aura is unfitting for a wedding." He proclaimed matter-a-factly.

Realizing Byakuya was right; Ichigo straightened up and cast aside his worries. He didn't even know what it was that was troubling him. "I suppose your right, whatever it is, it can be overlooked for the time being." He said with a nod as he looked over at Byakuya. "Please excuse me, there is somewhere I need to be."

Lightly amused at how well Ichigo was hiding his emotions, Byakuya nodded as though to say "go ahead" and with that, receiving a light bow before Ichigo left. "Kusajishi, I highly recommend you reconsider." He said bluntly as a splash was heard from a Koi being dropped.

**With Rukia-**

"OW!" yelp a rather irritated Rukia as yet another pin pierced her skin. "Mika-san please be a bit more careful with the pins." She commented as her eyebrow twitched.

The young seamstress looked to Rukia after adjusting the pin, "Terribly sorry miss Rukia. Don't worry, we're almost done. Just a bit more I promise." Mika said, trying to cheer up the petite bride to be.

Rukia wanted to let out a sigh but chose not to since she was not only being pinned, but the kimono was rather tight. As she stood there get poked and pinned she began to wonder about what it was the Ichigo had on his mind. _He said there was nothing we could do about it, and not only that but Ichigo hardly ever gets upset about things. There aren't that many things that would cause him to act like that. I think the only time he ever lets emotions like that show is when it involves someone really close._ She thought as she recalled some of the past times he had acted this way or anything close to it.

She recalled that whenever something was wrong with her he would soften up. She remembered how desperately he'd tried to save Orihime and herself. She then recalled him getting protective over his sisters when they were attacked by grand fisher.

That's when she realized, all of those people that would ever cause him to act like he was. To worry, or cry, to show any vulnerability what so ever. They were all going to be there tomorrow, except for the most important one.

"Alright, miss Rukia, we're done." Said another one of the seamstresses, taking her out of her thoughts as Mika carefully helped her remove Kimono.

Rukia finally let out the breath she'd been holding for the past hour. "finally." She then looked over to the tailors and smiled, "Thank you I'm sure this is going to be beautiful when you finish it." She said as she got back into her normal, or rather non work attire.

Mika gave Rukia a light bow "I promise it will, and I also promise it will be done by tonight. No more problems." She said with a slight perkish tone.

Rukia looked over and noticed that they have already begun embroidering the top of the outer layer. "don't worry I'm sure will look amazing, now If you'll excuse me, I need to be somewhere." She said with a smile as Mika nodded and went back to work and Rukia made her way to get into her shihakusho. She did a have a bachelorette party to attend later, planed by Matsumoto of course, but she was going to have to change how that was going to happen.

After going back to her room and changing she quickly rushed over to the 10th squad barracks.

**Squad 10-**

"How many times do I have to tell you Rangiku? NO, I am not going to be having a hangover at my best friend's wedding!" Uryu barked at his lieutenant as he ran from her, down the hall and toward the front door. She had been trying to convince him to have a few drinks at the bachelor party that had been planned for Ichigo. Like hell he was going to make that mistake, not to mention he wasn't to keen on the idea of a bachelor party planned by Madarame and Hisagi.

Catching up and finally catching her breath, Matsumoto let out a strong hmph and put her hands on her hips. "Oh fine, be the only sober one. Every party needs black sheep to pick on." She teased still trying to convince him.

"I guess that's gonna be you then?" came a snide remark a petite and cocky shinigami walked through the door. She smiled as she looked up at Uryu, "hey there Uryu, can you do me a favor and keep Ichigo out as long as you can?"

The two stopped fighting and looked over at Rukia. "What do you mean by that, you mean we won't be having any sake at your party?" Rangiku whined, already having a light buzz as it was, and this news could easily be called a 'buzz kill'.

"What's wrong Rukia? Or, maybe I should say what's right?" The quincy hybrid asked as he noticed her smile.

Hearing this Matsumoto raised an eyebrow and shot her a sly grin, "Oh my, trying to rush things are we? Good for you, finally getting out of your good girl shell, unlike this guy who won't even have a drink." She said, motioning at Uryu.

Rukia's smile became gritted teeth and her eyebrow started to twitch, "No… Lieutenant Matsumoto, we are NOT rushing things." She said threw her teeth. Finally calming down and getting back to what she meant to say, "Lieutenant, I'm changing our plans for the night. You see, Ichigo has been kind of down lately and I've figured out why. So I went and got permission and we are going to district 0 tonight to track down a very special present." She explained in a rather chipper tone.

"District 0, you mean the new district of the rukongai that was seceded from the main districts? But that's where we've been sending everyone we find with a decent amount of spiritual pressure. That place is given just the necessity's for its population why would we look for a gift there." Rangiku asked a bit confused.

Rukia sighed "Ichigo's father and sisters are already staying with us. I spoke with Mr. Kurosaki just before I left to come here and asked him about a hollow known as Grand Fisher. He said that he killed it years ago. So that's why we have someone to search for in district 0."

Uryu was starting to catch on to what this present was and smiled. "I hope you find her, I'll make sure Ichigo doesn't get back before midnight that should give you plenty of time. Now I better be going If I'm going to make it to the party." And with that they said good bye as he headed out.

Mastumoto looked back at Rukia, "So it's a person? Who?" asked a rather curious lieutenant as they left to pick up Orihime and rendezvous with Yoruichi.

**District 0-**

The girls had been searching the district for a good three hours, looking for who Rukia had proclaimed to be the answer to Ichigo's somewhat depression. They had searched a fair amount of houses too. Rukia was beginning to think she had been wrong in believing they could find her here. And if she was in one of the main districts, it would be nearly impossible to find her; especially on time.

"Um, Rukia, we've been looking for a long time now. Maybe we should take a break; I packed us a picnic dinner." Orihime suggested as they all stopped at a small yard not far from another little house.

Rukia sighed, "I suppose your right, I am a bit hungry." She admitted despite the torture that she knew was to come of Orihime's food. "I guess we can rest here." She added as she sat by the only tree in the yard.

As the other girls joined her, and Orihime passed out bentos of rice and mango with curry powder, they heard a small bushel in the bush a few feet away. Yoruichi smiled as she saw two sets of eyes peering from the bushes, "You know you kids are more than welcome to join us."

The two little sets of eyes quickly became two little kids. One around 5, a boy with short brown hair and matching eyes, the other was a girl, about 7 with short red hair and green eyes. The children slowly made their way over to the group and peered at the strange bento meals. "Um, excuse me, Ms. Shinigami, are you sure it's okay for us to join you?" the little girl asked hesitantly.

The four friends nodded as Rangiku held out her bento, "Here you go kids, you can have my bento." She said as she leaned in to whisper to them, "I don't really want it anyway." She then sat back down and poured herself some sake.

The children looked at the bento then each other and smiled. "Thank you very much." Said the little boy as they sat and gratefully ate their meal.

Rukia and Yoruichi looked at each other as if to say, "I can't believe they actually like it." After a while of eating, the group stood up and got their things together.

The little girl looked up at them and stood up as well, "You're leaving?" she asked innocently.

The group turned to look at them and Rukia stepped over to the girl, "I'm sorry, but we need to find someone today. You see tomorrow is a very important day for a friend of ours and he's a little upset so we're looking for someone that we think might cheer him up."

Hearing this the boy ran over to her, "We want you to meet mama first, she likes shinigami."

Rangiku, just wanting to stay cause she was now half drunk, spoke up, "Ya know it couldn't hurt."

"Alright then, let's go!" piped Orihime as she took the children's' hands and the 3 began laughing as they ran toward the house and the other just sighed and followed.

When they entered the little house the two children happily ran to a woman with dim orange hair and brown eyes who was patching up a blanket. "Mama, look we met some shinigami and they let us have lunch with then." The cheered with excitement.

The woman looked over at the door with interest and smiled when she saw Orihime, "So you did, why don't you two go play I'd like to speak with the nice shinigami for a moment." She said to the kids as they nodded and ran off. She then walked over to the group speaking to Orihime first, "You're the shinigami who comes to visit every now and then aren't you. You're the nice boy Sora's sister, It's nice to meet you."

Orihime just nodded and stayed quiet out of shyness. Matsumoto went back outside for some air. As for Yoruichi and Rukia they gasped.

Rukia stepped forward, "Excuse me my name is Rukia Kuchiki of squad 13, by any chance would you be…"

**Squad 13 barracks—**

While the girls were out "gift shopping" the boys were partying at the squad 13 barracks. That is, all but the guest of honor who was passed out on one of the cushions and leaning against the wall.

Uryu and Renji were starting to get fed up with the fact that Ichigo was acting so glum at his own party. Ryuzaki was having a cake eating contest with himself and Light was trying to hide the sweets from him, and failing. Hisagi, Ikkaku, and Yumichika were having a drink off.

As Light tried hiding some dangos he ran into Uryu and Renji, "Hey do guys mind if I ask you something?" He said as he put down the tray of dangos. The two sat down and nodded as the motioned for him to join. "Lieutenant Kurosaki has been like this for a while now; I thought that since you guys have known him for so long you'd know what's wrong with him."

"No idea, but he needs to lighten up." Renji said as he took a drink of sake.

"I have a small idea of what might be eating at him but if I'm right he should better soon." Stated Uryu as he grabbed one of the dangos the Light was trying to hide.

Just then, the door opened and in walked the girls along with a special guest. "Well, there he is." Rukia said as she motioned to Ichigo.

The ginger haired women walked over and sat beside Ichigo and gave a light chuckle, "He sure has changed." She said as she gave a smile.

**Meanwhile in Ichigo's dream-**

Ichigo was having a memorable dream about a time when he went to a festival with his mother when he was 5. At the moment the young Ichigo was trying to catch a goldfish as Masaki cheered him on, "That's my Ichigo."

After succeeding the booth manager placed the fish in a bag and handed it to the excited Ichigo, "Mommy look I won the fishy." He chanted as he showed the fish to his mother.

Masaki smiled and took her son's hand. "Yes you did, but…" she began as she lifted him up on her shoulders, "we need to get back to your daddy and sisters for dinner." She said as they went off towered the picnic area to meet up with Ishiin and the girls, who had just bought dinner at one of the food stands.

When they got to the field and set up a blanket to have their dinner Ichigo showed off his goldfish. "Pretty fishy" Yuzu said as she stared in awe at the bag with Karin.

Ishiin handed out some fried squid, vegetable tempura, miso soup, and rice. "So you caught that little guy all by yourself huh Ichigo?" he asked as he handed him a juice box.

Ichigo smiled, "yeah, mommy helped a little though." He said as he started eating.

Masaki gave Ichigo a big hug from behind, "Now now, you caught that little guy all by yourself." She said trying to motivate him.

Ichigo looked up at her, still smiling, "Well yeah, but you were there with me, so I was able to believe a could do it. And I did." Just as he said that the fireworks began to go off, "you're always going to be there for me right?" he said as he looked up at the fireworks.

"Always." She said as she watched with him and the dream began to fade.

**Reality-**

"Always." Ichigo mumbled as he slowly began to wake up with a few tears falling from his eyes. Suddenly, he felt a soft hand, gently wiping his face dry. As he opened his eyes, his vision slowly setting in, he looked to see who was comforting him and was taken by surprise at who he saw. "I'm still dreaming…" he whispered in disbelief as he received a warm, familiar feeling of comfort from the woman as she embraced him gently. It didn't take long before his shock was interrupted with a damp shoulder and the faint sound of sniffles. In fact, it was the only sound he could here, for the whole party had gone quiet, even the "trio" was at full attention.

"No Ichigo, it's real." Rukia finely said with a smile, breaking the silence, "This is my wedding gift to you."

Ichigo began to calm down as he gave an inward smile and accepted the fantastic reality. "Please forgive me." Was all he managed to say as tears fell from his eyes. Whether they were of joy, or of sorrow, he couldn't tell; but it didn't matter, he accepted them either way.

As she pulled away the woman smiled at him and wiped away his new tears, "Ichigo, how can I forgive what doesn't need to be forgiven. You always cared for others, and you were too young to tell the difference." She said as she tried to reassure him.

Bringing a hand to his head, he began to doubt reality once more as he stood up and took a deep breath. This was so spontaneous and unbelievable that he kept having flashes of shock. "I just... can't believe… you're here. How?"

Rukia walked over to the two, still having a gentle smile on her face. "Your father defeated Grand Fisher when you were training to gain control your hollow. From there, it's the same concept as Sora. After he told me, the girls and I went on a little treasure hunt in district 0." She explained, interrupting the moment. "I thought it might cheer you up a bit if I found her."

By now Ichigo had completely reverted back to his old self, "Rukia, thank you so much." He breathed as gave an extremely grateful smile. He then took the woman's hand just before pulling her in for an embrace that said ever word he was about to speak, "I've missed you so much, mother."

With that final word three things happened throughout the room. The girls and Uryu joined in on Rukia's smile, Rukia felt a sense of relief that she had cured Ichigo of his depression, and Light and Ryuzaki said to the other four guys with full confidence, "Pay up."

**Jingle, begin commercial**

**AN: So how was it, good right? I admit I cried while writing this. Well any who… I have an idea for the next few chapters but I still love ideas from my reviewers. The reviews I get that is . I promise I wont take a year again. See you soon ;) -Chuu-**


	12. Forever

**AN: Ok, sorry for the wait. Finally the chapter we've been waiting for. So here's the new chapter BANKAI! AUTHER STYLE!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own bleach, death note, fma, naruto, or any other anime that may yet appear. Nor do I own the characters, I only have claim on my OC's, Ame and Rima, in fact no I surrender my claim on Ame to kubo sensei****.**

**Jingle, end commercial.**

**Chapter 12: Forever**

Ichigo stood on one of the many sideways buildings that were now beginning gain a blanket of snow. The once bright sky was now, that of one in the night with no more than a shining crescent moon lingering high above. **"It would seem that all of the**** changes lately are changing this world as well." **A familiar voice came from behind him.

Turning to face the old man, Ichigo smirked, "Well it's staying this way then so get used to it." He said with a small chuckle.

"**I****s that so, well you seem rather cheerful today." **Zangetsu said as he noticed Ichigo's expression.

"_keh keh, of course he's cheery. King's getting himself hitched today, not to mention he just got reunited with his ma. Right King?"_ Shiro said as he practically appeared out of nowhere.

Ichigo shot the hollow a harsh glare, "First, shut up. Next, keep out of my personal life." He demanded, followed by a cheerful sigh as he looked back to Zangetsu, "He's right though. Why wouldn't I be happy today? I'm about to marry the woman I love, and I got to be with my mother again after so long." He said as he brought a hand up to brush some loose strands from in front of his eyes.

"**Well I suppose that would explain the snow**. **Was there something you wanted to discuss Ichigo?" **The old man said with a hint of concern.

Ichigo sighed again and took a seat in the snow, "I've got a week left after today. I haven't got a clue as to how long I'll be in Hueco Mundo, not to mention whether I'll make back or not."

Shiro stepped over and rested a hand on Ichigo's shoulder, leaning over and smirking beside him and snickering in his ear,_ "Don't die now King, Rukia'll be devastated. Then again, I'll still be around…"_

Shoving him off his shoulder, Ichigo turned and gave Shiro a full blow to the face, "I _really_ don't want to angry today." He growled as his hollow stumbled backward with a bloodstained, white hand over his face.

"**You deserved that." **Zangetsu said to Shiro as he walked over and placed a hand on Ichigo's shoulder, **"Listen boy, when the time comes we'll have your back, and you know that. For now, you need to focus on your wedding." **He said, reassuring his owner as he looked at from over his shades. It was actually strange to Ichigo, he had never seen this look on Zangetsu's face before. The key element being that he was smiling at him. Although it took some time, he soon began to recognize it as the same face that his father wore.

Letting out another small chuckle, Ichigo got up and returned the smile, "Thanks, I can always count on you to help me through a tight situation old man." And with that Ichigo let himself slip back into reality.

**In reality-**

As Ichigo opened his eyes and removed Zangetsu from his lap, he noticed his father sleeping against the wall, next to the door. Rolling his eyes, Ichigo walked over and gave him a nudge, "Hey. Ol' man. Come on, wake up."

Ishiin's eye's snapped open to see a slightly irritated Ichigo. Getting up as he stretched and let out a yawn, Ishiin smiled and put his arm around his son, "So how was the chat?" he asked, curious as to why Ichigo found the need to speak with Zangetsu so suddenly.

"I guess you could call it a real confidence builder." He said as he went and set Zangetsu on a wall mount, due to the fact that he wasn't going to be needing him for today. Ichigo then turned back to face his father again, "Now is there a reason you're in my room?"

Ishiin just laughed, finding his sons state of annoyance to be rather humorous, "Oh, so I'm not allowed to help my son prepare for his big day?" he said jokingly.

Ichigo sighed as he opened his wardrobe to get out his kimono, "I don't need any help, just do me a favor and make sure the girls are dressed." He said as he began to change into the silky navy blue kimono, which was embroidered with a boarder of small golden designs along the hems.

Ishiin smiled, seeing Ichigo the way he was, was making him feel very proud. "Don't worry about them, your mothers helping get them ready. Honestly son, I came by to tell you how proud I am of you. You've really grown Ichigo, and I'm happy that you were able find your place here, not to mention it being in the Kuchiki house." He said as he a hand on his shoulder, "Promise me you won't let anything happen to her." He added with a sigh.

Ichigo smiled back at his father and placed his own hand on the one that was on his shoulder, "Thanks dad, and don't worry, I promise, I'll keep her safe."

**Rukia-**

Rukia's head was tangled with emotions. Nervous, excited, anxious, worried, it was all so overwhelming she could barely stand. Leaning against the wall with a hand on her dizzy head, she took a deep breath, "I didn't think I'd be so nervous." She said to herself, trying to calm down.

Just then, there was a tap on the door frame, "Rukia, do you mind if I come in?" It was Masaki.

Rukia got up and went to open the door, welcoming her in with a smile. "Mrs. Kurosaki, honestly I'm really grateful that you're here. My head just won't stop spinning."

Masaki stepped into the room, closing the door behind her, "Don't worry dear, it's natural to be nervous." She said trying to calm her nerves.

Rukia took another deep breath and smiled, "Thanks, I guess I'm just thinking about it too much."

Returning the smile, Masaki placed a hand on Rukia's shoulder, "Rukia, I just want you to know, Ichigo told me everything last night. How he met you, how he awakened his powers, and why he was so dedicated to what he had to do. I'm very grateful for you coming into his life, I'm sure he'd still be blaming himself had you not been there, and I'm also very grateful for the fact that you brought us all together again." She said as she walked her over the wardrobe, "Now, what do you say we get you ready?"

Rukia didn't know what to say, she had just been trying to help, and she didn't know it was going to be this much of an impact. She suddenly gasped at the fact that she was suddenly being led over to her wardrobe "W-well, look there's really no need to thank me, I just… he was really down and I thought if I could find you and reunite the two of you, maybe he'd feel better." She finally answered as Masaki helped her change. The Kimono was two layers of fine silk, the bottom layer being pure white. The top layer was a bright peach color and embroidered with pink and slightly brighter pink flowers. Her lavender obi wrapped several times, it itself was embroidered with various bright spring colored flowers.

After finishing the obi Masaki stepped back and smiled again, "hmm, well thank you none-the-less. Now listen Rukia, you're a very special girl, and I'm so happy that my son has you, not to mention such a wonderful family. Please just promise me one thing." She said as fixed a pink chrysanthemum and golden comb just above Rukia's left ear and shot her a playful grin, "I'd really like it if I could get some grandchildren." And with that the two of them just laughed.

Finally, when they calmed down, Rukia had a cheerful smile on her face, "Thank you." She whispered with a small hint of red just before the two left the room and made their way toward the garden.

**The garden:**

Everyone was gathered in the garden for the ceremony. Ichigo was there and waiting eagerly with Ishiin by his side. It wasn't long before Masaki joined the crowed with a fresh smile on her face, and Byakuya was escorting Rukia down to the newly blooming sakura tree that served as an altar. When she finally arrived and looked at Ichigo, he couldn't help but utter four simple words, "You look so beautiful."

Hearing this made Rukia's face fill with red. "You… look pretty nice yourself." She whispered back to him as the breeze blew her hair back.

The priest stepped forward, "Everyone, we have gathered here to join these two wonderful people, Ichigo Kurosaki, and Rukia Kuchiki, together as one." He announced as he guided their hands to one another. Before he continued, a red spirit ribbon appeared behind each of them he took each one in his hands. "Each of us has our own spirit ribbon, whether it is white or red, it signifies our spirits; however, when we join together with another, we take our ribbons and combine them." He continued as he tied the two together above their hands, before letting go he continued once again, "Once I let go of your ribbons, you will be forever as one. Should you ever betray one another, you will lose all of your raitsu as punishment." He then paused, allowing the two to speak.

Holding her hand tighter, Ichigo smiled softly and gazed into her violet orbs, "Rukia, I love you, and I can't think of a single reason for me not wanting to be with you for the rest of my existence." He said as a faint, joyous tear, fell down his cheek.

Rukia felt her face heat up as she let out a small breath and smile back at him, "You have no idea how happy that makes me, no matter what may happen, I'll always stay by your side."

The priest let go of the joined ribbons as they became one and began to shine in a golden light, "Now I pronounce these two as one. A bond that cannot be broken, and a new strength that only comes from such a bond, now belongs to Ichigo and Rukia Kuchiki." And with that, the ribbon vanished in a burst of lights that went all too well with the dimming evening sky.

It was in that moment that the two of them felt as though it was only them and no one else. Still gazing deep into each other's eyes, Ichigo took Rukia by the waist, pulling her close, and meeting her halfway for a deep and passionate first kiss as husband and wife. When finally they broke apart Rukia felt breathless, looking up at him again, she didn't only see Ichigo, but she saw him as he was before; when he was still the 15 year old boy she had met so long ago. Smiling, she closed her eyes for a moment and captured what she'd seen. When she opened her eyes again, she saw the Ichigo of today, he had changed so much; physically and maturely. "Ichigo, I love you, I have for the longest time now, and I always will."

**Jingle, begin commercial**

**AN: So how was it, good right? Well I know it was short but I hope it was good either way****.**** Descriptions for the wedding attire and the final scene go to deviant artist: Yuki119. This deviant is my new official illustrator. Well any who… I have an idea for the next few chapters but I still love ideas from my reviewers. See you soon ;) -Chuu-**


	13. A White Butterfly

**AN: Ok, so here's how this works. I wanted to make this special scene for the story but its rated M so I have it posted as a side story chapter titled "a night under the moon" and it is chapter 12 ½ to "a new life" if you haven't read that yet you can if you want to but the story makes sense regardless if you're not into that stuff. Anyway, if you did read it thank you and this chapter should come off as either touching or funny. I hope you enjoy it.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own bleach, naruto, death note, fma, or any other anime that might appear. Nor do I own the characters.**

**Jingle, end commercial.**

The next morning, Ichigo woke to the sound of birds chirping outside. After blinking a few times he glanced down and smiled to see a blissfully sleeping Rukia curled up against his chest. Running his fingers gently threw her hair; he gave her a small peck on the forehead, "I'll be back soon." He whispered in her ear before sitting up and grabbing a simple kimono before putting it on.

As Ichigo was getting up, Rukia opened one eye and smiled as she watched him get dressed and step outside, _"that's too bad, I was enjoying just laying here with you." _She thought as she watched him leave the room. He hadn't been aware of it but Rukia had been awake for the past half hour, simply enjoying the moment. She let out a small sigh as she got up and put on her own kimono. After brushing the tangles from her hair she stepped outside and made her way out to the garden.

When she arrived, she walked over and had a seat under one of the sakura trees next to the koi pond and started playing with the water. Looking into the pond at her reflection, seeing that the left side of her kimono was falling open a bit, she gasped as a light blush crept onto her face with a smile as she placed a hand over the little red mark, "He seemed a bit worried about something." She thought aloud as she sat back against the tree and let out a small sigh.

Gazing up and watching the sakura petals fall, Rukia relaxed against the tree and slowly drifted off to sleep. Why she was so tired, she didn't know, she had just woke up so why was she so drowsy. It didn't matter though; she figured she'd be fine after a nap so there was no need to worry.

**With Ichigo—**

Ichigo had been asked after dinner last night to meet with Byakuya first thing in the morning, and that's just what he was on his way to do. When he got to the study he sat down in front of the door and waited to be invited in.

"Come in Ichigo." Byakuya said from in the room.

Ichigo opened the door and gave a light bow, "You wanted to see me Byakuya sama?"

Putting down his brush, Byakuya got up and walked over to a cabinet, taking out what looked like a cream colored silk package, "I meant to give this to you at dinner last night, your father suggested I wait until today." He said as he handed it to his new brother in law.

Accepting the small yet obviously valuable gift, Ichigo unfolded the cloth to see a double bracket kenseiken, "I don't understand, these are only meant to be worn by…"

"by high ranking members of the Kuchiki family, as is that scarf." He said, finishing Ichigo's sentence.

"You're saying you consider me a true member of the family?" he said as he picked up the hairpiece.

"I have for some time now Ichigo, now that its official I can give you these. Consider it a late wedding gift." Byakuya said as a small, rare smile appeared on his face, "welcome to the family Ichigo, please don't disappoint me."

After being dismissed, Ichigo went back to the room to find no sight of Rukia. As he laughed it off, he went over and sat at a small mirror and sighed. Placing his 'gift' on the table, he contemplated how he was going to wear his kenseiken. When he finally decided, he pulled back his hair and separated it into two portions, putting one in each bracket and tying the two together. "Well I Guess that works." He thought aloud as he checked his work.

As he stood up he wrapped the scarf around and let both ends drape over the front of his right shoulder. _"Wow, make me a captain and I look just that stuck up, high and mighty, 'brother' of mine." _He thought as he let out a light chuckle_. _It wasn't often he got to be himself anymore, what with all the restrictions in this new life of his, but being with Rukia was worth it without question. Now for the fun part, finding his lovely new wife.

**Back in the garden-**

After searching for about an hour, Ichigo finally arrived at the garden to see a sleeping Rukia leaned up against the sakura tree. Smiling as he walked over to her, he knelt down to eye level and cupped her face in the palm of his hand. He then glanced up as he noticed a little white butterfly in her hair.

"Now who are you?" He said to it as he held out his first two fingers for the butterfly to fly over to, which it did.

"Good morning Ichigo. Who's your friend?" Rukia said as she woke and gave him a small peck followed by a smile.

Returning her smile with one of his own, Ichigo looked at their little visitor, "I was hoping to ask you the same question. This little guy was in your hair." He said as he sat down next to her up against the tree.

The butterfly slowly fluttered its wings and flew back over to Rukia and landed on her shoulder as it made a small jingle sound that Ichigo and Rukia heard as light, musical words. "~Okaa san, you're pretty~" the butterfly said with a giggle.

The newlyweds gasped at the comment, still not understanding the situation yet after hearing that, it was somewhat obvious. "Rukia, did it just call you…" Ichigo started as Rukia cut him off with a nod.

The two stood up and looked at the butterfly, "Ichigo, maybe we should ask someone about this." Rukia suggested as Ichigo nodded in agreement and the two headed back to the main room with their new friend.

When Ichigo and Rukia got to the main lounge they noticed that Masaki and Ishiin were there as well, catching up after so many years. The confused couple walked over and sat down across from them as Ichigo sighed, "Hey, we need your help with something." He admitted roughly.

Ishiin and Masaki noticed the butterfly on Rukia's shoulder and smiled at each as they shared a small laugh. Then looking back at the younger pair Ishiin grinned as he place a proud hand on his son's shoulder, "Well congratulations Ichigo, that sure didn't take very long did it." He half-joked.

Ichigo swatted his father's hand away, even for confused now then he was, "What are you talking about? We just wanted to ask if you knew anything about this butterfly. I mean, it looks just like a hell butterfly but it's white." He asked in a half confused, half aggravated tone.

Masaki brought a hand to her mouth and giggled, "Ichigo, that's a shiro cho. It's the soul of a child that never got to have a chance at life." She started to explain.

Rukia glanced over at the butterfly, "But, then why is it with us?" she asked as it flew off her shoulder and began to flutter around them making a musical giggling sound before landing in her hair.

"When two shinigami become parents, the child starts off as a shiro cho. Over time it will feed on the parents raitsu and once it has had enough it will take the form of a toddler and then grow at a normal pace." Ishiin said as he looked at Ichigo, as if to say, "you know what I'm saying right?"

A small moment went by as they let it sink in, "So… this is our child?" Ichigo asked in a somewhat stunned tone, as the shiro cho flew over to him and landed on his shoulder.

"~Otou san, do you not like me? ~" the 'child' said as it slowly fluttered its wings.

Ichigo gasped as he glanced over at what seemed to be a sad little butterfly, "No, of course I like you, I'm just surprised is all." He softly explained as he brought up a hand to let it perch on his finger.

Rukia smiled as she watched the two bond, letting it all soak in herself, "You know something Ichigo, I'm not surprised at all." She said as leaned over to give Ichigo a hug as he smiled down at her.

The butterfly left Ichigo's finger and made its way over to nuzzle in Rukia's hair. When it was finally nice and comfortable it started glowing.

Jumping at a small glimpse of shock, Rukia felt a small hint of weakness. "Ichigo, I'm feeling a little tired." She mumbled as rested her head on his shoulder.

Glancing down at her, Ichigo felt a bit confused, "Rukia, how are you tired, you just woke up from a nap?" he said as he brushed a strand of hair from her somewhat dazed eyes.

Ishiin placed a hand on his son's shoulder and smiled, "Don't worry, the kids just hungry. Rukia should be wide awake once she gets some of her raitsu back."

Ichigo calmed down a bit after hearing this, "That's good to hear." He said as Rukia lay her head down on his shoulder and drifted off to sleep.

**Squad 13 training ground—**

It was roughly high noon and Light and Ryuzaki were just starting a break from training. Right as they sat down and got out their lunch, Uryu and Orihime walked over and joined them.

"Hi, you don't mind if we join you do you?" Orihime chirped as she sat down and opened her bento, composed of weird foods. (again)

Giving a light shake of his head, Uryu gave a light sigh as he smiled, "You should wait until they answer."

Noticing some sweets in Orihime's bento, Ryuzaki brought a thumb to his lip and eye the box, practically drooling over the treats.** "**No problem at all, but… you wouldn't mind if I tried some of those would you?" he said, pointing at his weakness known as sweet foods.

After giving a slight questioning look, Orihime smiled and held out the box, "Sure thing Ryuzaki kun, take as many as you want."

Light couldn't help but laugh at the fact that she had just given away half her lunch, "Inoue chan, I'd keep an eye on how much he takes if I were you." he advised humorously. Once he stopped laughing he looked over at Uryu, "Say, Ishida san, you wouldn't happen to know where lieutenant Kuchiki is today would you? He hasn't been around all day." it felt a bit odd to call him 'Kuchiki' rather then 'Kurosaki' it was going to take some getting used to.

Uryu took a seat and let out a small sigh, "Well the two of them did just have their wedding, I'm sure they just want to spend some time together." True, there was a crisis happening at the moment but he doubted that even soul society was so cold as to make someone skip out on their honeymoon.

"Actually, Ichigo and Rukia are going to have their hands full for a while." Renji said as he walked over to the group, "White butterflies need a lot of attention after all." he said with a small chuckle.

The whole group looked over at Renji. Ryuzaki was the first to say something, "Where did you learn about this?" he asked as he picked up another sweet snack.

Renji took a seat and pulled out his own lunch, "I was asking Captain Kuchiki how the two were doing and he mentioned something about seeing a white butterfly on Rukia's shoulder while she was napping earlier."

Uryu raised an eyebrow at the topic, "Alright, so what exactly is a white butterfly?" he asked as he put his cup down.

For the rest of their lunch, Renji tried his best to explain things whilst keeping a straight face. What was rather interesting to Uryu was that Orihime already knew everything about it. Then again, being on squad 4, its probably required knowledge about things in that area.

Once the explanation was over Uryu sighed and gave a light smile as he took another drink of his tea, "I see, in that case I hope he's a better father then his." he said with a small chuckle.

"I wonder though, hows the kid going to feel about not having a father around for the beginning of his life?" Light said as he stood up and stretched his muscles a bit.

Orihime gasped at the question "What do you mean Light kun, Is Ichigo going somewhere?"she said as she put down her bento, which was then pretty much stolen by Ryuzaki.

"I doubt he's told Rukia yet, but Lieutenant Kuchiki is to gather a team of 5 and go on a recon mission in hueco mundo next week for at least a year." Light explained in a calm tone, "Actually I don't think he's told anyone other there Captain Kuchiki, the only reason we know is because he made us part of the team." he added, matter of factly.

Renji gave a small sigh, "I see what you mean now, the butterfly stage lasts 5-6 months, then the kid takes toddler form around the looks of a 3-4 year old. He or she will feel as if they've lived that long to... and with only faint subconscious memories of their time as a butterfly. I'd be surprised if the child recognizes Ichigo when he gets back, much less forgives him for leaving." he said, making sure that Uryu and Orihime understood.

Orihime didn't even care that her bento was gone, she was shocked at the idea of what she had heard. She looked up at Uryu with big, sad eyes, "We're going to help right? I mean, When Rukia starts working again we can help out on our vacation days right Uryu? Children that grow up alone, well it's just not right." she said as she looked down to the side as she said the last part.

Uryu knew what she was thinking right away. She was thinking on how she was alone as a child, with only her brother and then not even that. This wasn't completely the same, but it was true that Rukia would have work to do, after all, they in the middle of a crisis. Taking her face in his hands he look straight into her eyes, "Yes, we will help them. But when he gets back it should be just fine, so don't worry. And remember we have to use some of those days to visit Sora right?" he said trying to calm her down a bit, which worked because she brought up a hand and smiled as she wiped the little tears that had nearly started to fall from her eyes, and nodded. He smiled back and leaned in and gave her a small peck on the lips. He had tasted something faintly familiar though, slightly sour with a tingly feeling but mind boggling, too. It was like that tiny hint of flavor filled his whole body with shivers in a somewhat odd and good way as his face was suddenly heating up. It was the heat that brought the conclusion upon him too, "Orihime, did lieutenant Matsumoto come visit you this morning?" he said as he brought a hand to his forehead.

Orihime nodded again, "yeah she did, she asked me to have a drink with her and we talked about... um... stuff." she said, blushing at the fact that Rangiku had decided it was time to push Orihime into being more 'lovey' in her relationship with Uryu, and how, AKA the talk.

_'I'm going to kill that woman' _he thought as he tried to stay awake and calm, "Do me a favor and either don't drink or warn me if you have ok?" and before she could say anything he fell over and passed out on her lap.

The 3 other guys just snickered a bit as Renji held out a hand and was offered 1000 yen each. Another bet they had made, this time it was made that night at the bachalor party when they realized Uryu wasn't drinking. 1000 says he cant hold his liquor. That was Renji's bet, Light and and Ryuzaki said that he just doesn't drink. Renji looked at at the now concerned Orihime and patted her shoulder, "This is why Captain Hitsugaya doesn't allow sake in the barracks anymore." he said as he laughed some more.

**Later that evening**

Ichigo and Rukia had just finished with their supper for the night and were now enjoying some family time in their room. The butterfly was restless, fluttering about the room, asking questions nonstop and occasionally crashing into things. Oddly enough, it would break anything it crashed into. Cracking the floor, breaking the table, cracking the wall, tearing the blankets. Ichigo couldn't help but laugh, despite how tired he was. Apparently his raitsu was like caffeine to this child.

Rukia sighed and carefully caught the little one by the tip of it's wings, "Hush...calm down your going to hurt yourself." she said as she placed it gently in the palm of her hand, "Now, if your good, your father and I will each answer one of your questions ok?" she bargained as she released the little wings and they gave a small flutter as if nodding. "Okay, now, what your first question?" she said as she nudged Ichigo to stop his chuckling.

The Butterfly fluttered over to Ichigo's shoulder. ~"Otou san... how did you and Okaa san meet?"~ the little one asked Ichigo.

Ichigo and Rukia looked at each other for a bit before silently agreeing to go ahead and tell the story. Rukia gave a smile to the butterfly, "I met your father in a very special way. You see, you father's spiritual pressure is so strong, he was able to see me when he was still human." she said as the butterfly began to flutter and glow bright, as if to show amusment.

"Calm down, you want to hear the rest right?" Ichigo said as as the child stilled its wings but continued to glow. Thankfully, Ichigo could tell that this glow didnt mean he was feeding. "Alright, now, like your mother was saying, we met when I was still human. My spiritual pressure was so strong, it drew a hollow to attack my family." He began as the child glow started to grow dimmer.

~"What happened, did the hollow get away?"~ chirped the curious and slightly scared child.

"Your mother risked her life to save us. When she got so injured she couldn't continue, she risked being executed and gave me her powers." He continued as he put his arm around Rukia.

"Ichigo, your making me sound so noble." Rukia said with a little blush and giggle.

~"So then you became a shinigami too, and decided to come live here right?"~ The child asked as he fluttered to Rukia's ear.

"No, and I think we should skip what happened next." Rukia answered with a hint of a smile, "but we soon found out that three of our captains were planning a war against soul society. Your father here is known as the hero of the winter war. The soul king himself praised him for what he did."

~"Wow, Otou san's a hero. I want to be strong too. No, I want to be stronger! So what happened after that?~" the now hyper again child chimed.

"Shh... quiet down we don't want to wake the whole family do we?" Ichigo said trying to calm the child. "Okay, so what happened was..." Ichigo sighed as he got ready to tell the end of the story, "for the next 2 years I lived my life as a normal human, and I didnt see your mother again untill... untill the day I died, along with our friends." Ichigo said with a hint of tension, "that was nearly 2 years ago."

Rukia could see the sadness hideing behind his eyes as he finished the story, "Ichigo, I think this question has been answered." she said as she leaned in to give him a calming peck on the cheek.

Ichigo smiled and looked at the butterfly, "She's right, and you know something, I think that because your our child, and we're from two different worlds, you make us one. And you will be strong, I'm sure of it." As Ichigo said this the butterfly started to glow once more, even brighter this time, "Now, what question would you like to ask your mother?"

After thinking for a bit, the butterfly finally came up with a question, "Okay, Okaa san, why did I feel the need to come to you and Otou san today?"~

Ichigo and Rukia jumped at the question, it was obviously the same as saying 'where do babies come from?'. Rukia looked over to the now floating butterfly and sighed, "Let's save that for another night, I think its time for bed anyway." she said as she guided the child to nestle warmly in her hair.

~"But you said i could have two questions"~ mumbled the disappointed yet admittedly tired butterfly as the glow faded.

Ichigo chuckled lightly, "Now I promise you and me will be spending all week together, so for tonight, you just get some sleep okay?" The child didnt even need to speak as it slowly fell asleep with it's wings shut in Rukia's hair.

Rukia raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms, "Spill it Ichigo, what have you been keeping from me?" She said sternly but quiet so is not to wake their child.

Ichigo looked at her and soon after sighed with a somewhat melancholy face, "Rukia, I've been asked to lead a recon team into hueco mundo. I'll... I'll be gone for at least a year. The head captain gave me this week to be with you before I go." he said as he placed a hand on Rukia's shocked and slightly worried face.

"But, what about the butterfly... why now? We just got our family started, they cant send you away now..." She sobbed quietly, not caring in the slightest.

Ichigo softly wiped away her tears and gave her a peck on the forehead, "I know, and I wish I could stay. I promise though, I will come back safe. Now, why dont we get to bed too" he said with a faint smile.

Rukia's face lightened a small amount as she nodded, "I love you, Ichigo." she said as she embraced him just before they turned out the light and settled down for bed.

**jingle~ start commercial**

**A/N: phew, that took a while. Wow I didnt think it would ever get done. Anyway I'd like to give thanks to Uchiha Xairylle for letting me use her butterfly idea. And i want to point out that the uryu and orihime kiss was brought to me when i was drunk XD well tell me your opinions id love to hear (read) them.**


	14. 5 days left (part 1)

**AN: Ok, so sorry for taking so long, but as you'll notice this chap is VERY long. I hope you like it, I worked extremely hard on it. it should come off as either touching or funny. I hope you enjoy it.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own bleach, naruto, death note, fma, or any other anime that might appear. Nor do I own the characters.**

**Jingle, end commercial.**

**Chapter 14- 5 days left (part 1)**

**Day 1- Look after them.**

The next day, Uryu was preparing to go on patrol duty as he rubbed a massive headache out of his head. Why, now of all days did he have to be sent to the rukongai. On top of that it was predetermined that he'd be gone for 2-5 days. What if he didn't get back in time to see Ichigo off.

So many problems, so many preparations, and the worst headache ever. He couldn't find anywhere quiet, he had gotten into a fight the last night and was hit in the head, and on top of that he had been in the middle of a hangover thanks to orihime's booby trapped lips. NOW he was trying get ready with a drunk lieutenant and an angry captain bickering at at maximum volume in the next room.

Finally, he shot up and marched next door, "PLEASE! No disrespect to either of you, but could you please keep it down." he shouted so he'd be heard just before calming down, "look, I'm sorry for yelling, but I've got a horrible headache and I have a mission that I need be to prepared for in 30 minutes. So, could you maybe... keep it down a bit." he added in with small sigh.

Rangiku, being as out of it as she was, laughed as she trotted over behind him and draped her arms over his shoulders, "Oh I'm sooooooo sowy, but I cant *hic* I cat... wait what was I gon' say?" She slurred with a small giggle as her head fell on his shoulder.

Uryu quickly placed a hand over his nose and mouth, not takeing any chances. If he could pass out from a kiss, whos to say the amount of alchole in his liuetenants breath wouldnt at the very least make him tipsy. As she seemed to begin to zone out on his shoulders, he glanced over at Toshiro, "At least she's quiet now, but there are a few problems with her laying on me."

Toshiro sighed at the disruption, and gave a small smirk, "Sorry for all the commotion Ishida. Go ahead and get ready, it should quiet be now that she's out of it." he commented in annoyance as he helped Uryu get Matsumoto off of him and on to the couch.

As he made his way out the door he brought his hands up to apply pressure to his temples, trying to relieve some of the pain. "Damn migraine, to bad aspirin doesn't exist here." he grumbled to himself, pretty much saying the same thing he had always said when he had a headache as he trudged down the hall.

~"What's asiprin?"~ came a whimsical little voice from behind. Uryu turned and saw a rapidly fluttering, glowing, white butterfly circling Ichigo's head.

"It's medicine, it makes it so you stop hurting." Ichigo said as he reached out and swiftly pinched the child's wings shut.

Uryu removed his hand and adjusted his glasses, "You mind explaining? I mean, I heard about the whole white butterfly thing and I understand that much but whats with the treatment, children are fragile at that age you know?"

Ichigo gave a small chuckle and looked over at his friend, "Don't worry, we found out last night that my reishi is like caffeine for the kid, and he or she just got done with breakfast. This is just my method of saying calm down, it seems to work and apparently the little one doesn't seem to mind." He explained with a slight smirk as he let go and the child flew over to rest on his shoulder.

Uryu just sighed as he turned and continued to walk back to his room, motioning for Ichigo to follow him. "So have you decided on a team yet?" he asked as they arrived and in the room and sat down to talk.

Ichigo's expression dropped a bit at the topic. Glanceing over at the butterfly he gave a small smile so as to avoid suspision, "Why dont you go burn off some of that extra energy outside for a bit, I need to talk to my friend here about something." he said as the child futtered an ok and raced off, flying out of the room and up and down the hall jingling with laughter.

Looking back over at Uryu, Ichigo gave a slight glare, "Who told you, and why would you bring that up when... never mind." he said as slowly calmed down. he let out a sigh as he brought up a hand to pitch the bridge of his nose, "Look Uryu, I Haven't told anyone ok. I mean, Rukia got it out of me last night but..." he trailed off as he relaxed and took a breath. The whole thing was putting a lot of stress on him right now.

Uryu leaned in and placed a hand on his friend's shoulder, "Ku...Ichigo, look, I get it, you didn't want us to worry, but we were going to find out eventually. Yagami san told Inoue and me about it yesterday and if I remember correctly Renji was there too. so now there's really only one person who doesn't know and if you don't tell them they're going to be devastated when you leave." He explained as he glanced out the door as he finished speaking.

Ichigo wasn't that dumb, he knew who Uryu was referring to even without the glance. How was he supposed to explain such a situation to a child though? "I know, and I will but... not yet."

Uryu stood up and walked over to his desk to search for his radar, "Well you only have 5 days so i hope you build up the courage to try something soon. Look, I have patrol duty, and I'm not sure if I'll be back before you leave. So, since I need to leave now, and I only know about two of the four people going with you." hes said as he finished packing, "do me a favor okay, please don't take Inoue as your medic."

As he made his way to the door Ichigo sighed and glanced over at his friend, "I didn't plan on it. I would never make her revisit that place, not if I have a say in the matter. I actually came by to ask if you could watch over Rukia while I'm gone." He assured him in a concerned tone.

Joining him at the door, the two left the room and began to walk down the hall and the little butterfly fluttered over and landed on Ichigo's shoulder. Uryu glanced at the child that seemed to be mellowing out as it's wings opened and closed slower each time, most likely falling asleep. "We intended on it, but I'm glad to hear it crossed your mind" he informed him as they approached the exit. "Its likely I wont be back before you leave so I'll go ahead and say it now, so long Ichigo, and come back safe." he added as they split up and went their separate ways.

**- 2 hours later at squad 13 **

Having but a week to left to not only get things in line for the trip to Hueco Mundo, but also to spend with his child, Ichigo decided that he may as well kill two birds with one stone and take the little one to his office with him. As he was just finishing the recruit list for his team a small jingle was heard from his right. Glancing over to the now, slowly fluttering butterfly he gave a small smile and brought his finger up to it for it to move to. "Well I see your awake. I hope you slept well." He said as he brought the now glowing child in front of him.

~ I did. Otou san, where did your friend go I wanted to ask him about that strange energy he had?~ the child sang as the glowing got a bit more intence.

Noticing not only the glow but the tickle of his reishi being absorbed, Ichigo gave a small sigh. "Don't over do it, to much and you'll make yourself tired again." He warned, as if his energy had caused, and most likely did cause, a sugar high and crash.

The butterfly just fluttered its wings slowly with a jingle of a nod as the glow dimmed down a bit.

"Uryu had to go to work, but don't worry you'll have plenty of time to ask him when he gets back. He's a good friend of the family, I've known him almost as long as I've known your mother, so he may as well be another uncle for you." Ichigo explained, answering the child's question as he placed his signature on the list.

Fluttering over and landing on the ink jar, the child looked over at the four pictures on the profiles that were fanned out beneath the list, ~Otou san, who are these people?~ the butterfly chimed in curiosity.

Looking over at the pictures, Ichigo shut his eyes for a brief moment and sighed before giving a soft smile, "Their just a few important friends of mine, we're about to start a big project together so I''m checking their files to make sure their going to be able to work on it." He half lied to cover the fact that he was leading them on a year long mission. It was still to soon to tell the child, there was no telling how it'd react. "Now come on over here, it's time to go home, I'm sure your mother misses you" He added as the butterfly fluttered over to rest on his shoulder and he collected the files as he made his was out.

~Otou san, can you tell me another story?~ The little one suddenly chimed as they made their way back to the Kuchiki household.

Ichigo chuckled a bit at the child's enthusiasm, "Alright then, what do you want to know?" he asked as he brushed a few strands from his face.

Slowly fluttering its wings a few times, silently, the child thought for a moment. Soon enough it jingled a small question, "Last night you said that you met Okaa san when you were still alive, can you tell me what it was like to be alive? what did it feel like?" The child chimed in a bit of an excited tone.

Stopping for a moment, Ichigo glanced over at the little flutter-bug on his shoulder. "It's been two years...but...to remember what it was like... it feels like its been longer because I can barely remember anything." He uttered softly as he started walking again, "I do however, remember those close to me, it's important that no matter what, you never forget them." He said with a smile.

The butterfly flew up to burrow a nest in Ichigo's hair, ~So, you remember your friends? That's all?~ it questioned with curiosity.

Thinking for a moment, Ichigo gave a light sigh, "Only a few, and my sisters. Now that I think about it, I can't seem to recall the feel of a living body either, but I do remember that when I was alive I was very different from how I am now."

~Really, how?~ the child jingled as it seemed to do a little hop.

Finally Ichigo had a cheerful face on once more at his child's never ending curiosity, "Hmph, yeah. Arrogant, naive, persistent. I couldn't control my energy and I always acted without thinking." he reminisced as the child just listened.

The butterfly jingled a small laugh, ~wow, but your nothing like that now, what made you change?~ it asked, still curious as ever.

"Actually, When it's just the few people that I was always around back then, like Uryu and your mother, I'm still the same. If you want to know what changed me though, It was your uncle. He said that if I wanted to be with your mother, I needed to change." Ichigo explained with a small chuckle. "Now no more questions, we're almost home." he added to calm the child down a bit as they approached the residence.

**Day 2- What is chakra?**

It was half past noon and Minato was in his study, struggling to figure out a salution to this crisis. All of the captains had been informed of the war in Hueco Mundo, and they had all agreed that they would be effected in one way or another. Whether it be that negative side won and they in a state of emergency forever, or the positive, and they be at peace with the hollows for quite some time. It was decided that the best idea was to assist the positive side in their battle. Of course, why wouldn't they try to raise their chances at a truce with Hueco Mundo.

So it was because of this that the captain of squad 3 was stressing over his research on those they had been informed of for the past 32 hours. So far he had recognized 8 faces, or at least what was revealed of their faces. Two of them assured him that this was going to be a very deadly war. As he messaged his temples he heard a small knock on the door, "Come on in." he said, still rubbing the pain of sleep deprivation from his head.

The door slide open and Ichigo stepped inside baring a red mark on his left cheek, and a butterfly nuzzled in his scarf on the right. "Good afternoon Captain Namikaze, have you come up with anything yet?" He asked quietly as he closed the door behind him.

The blonde looked up at him and gave a light sigh as he brought his hands down, "It's true that these particular hollows are from the same world as me, and I do recognize them, but I'm not the one the fought them so I'm afraid what we've been told is what we know." He explained, motioning at his research.

Ichigo brought a hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose and removed it soon after and sighed, "That's alright, I understand. But could help me with one more thing?" he questioned calmly as remembered something else.

"What ever it was I'm sure you deserved it." Minato joked as he started cleaning up his desk.

Ichigo just rolled his eyes and brought a hand to his cheek, "I was stating a fact. How was I supposed to know she would get mad?" He stopped and thought for a minute, "Forget I said that, but shes so small it surprised me."

The captain looked up at him with a raised eyebrow, "Alright what happened?" He asked in a bit of a father type tone as he stopped with the cleaning and payed attention to the upcoming story and motioning for Ichigo to sit.

Taking a seat, Ichigo removed his hand and took a confessing breath, "I woke up this morning and noticed something a bit different about Rukia. I decided to it was nothing and just let it go, but before I came down here to talk to you she almost fell in the koi pond and when I caught her I... may have mentioned she was a bit heavier then usual." He explained, struggling to admit to the taboo of speaking to women about their weight.

Minato just burst into laughter, "You cant be serious. Ichigo you NEVER say that to a woman, no matter how true it is. I said that to my wife once and she hit me so hard, the village had to lead itself for 3 days. Then again, she was probably the second strongest woman in the village." he said as he started to calm down. "Look, Ichigo, It's probably just the extra reishi she has now." he suggested as he got a few more small chuckles out.

"Extra? What do you mean extra reishi?" Ichigo asked a bit confused.

The blonde smile and pointed at the butterfly in Ichigo's scarf, "The extra reishi she's producing for that little guy on your shoulder. It's making her heavier. Like liveing women eat more for the child they carry and it makes them gain extra weight. In fact, that was the same situation I was in." he explained with one more small laugh as he remembered everything he was talking about.

Taking it all in Ichigo sighed, "Well, I guess that makes sense." He said quietly, having solved one of his questions. "this isn't what I wanted your help with though." he admitted, redirecting the conversation to business.

Minato's face became serious again, tired, but serious, "Alright lieutenant what is it?" he asked, more focused now.

Ichigo looked him in the eye as he rested his chin on the back of his hands, "The 3rd seat of squad 12 mentioned something called chakra. Some sort of special energy from your world. Is there anything you can tell me about it, what does it do, how do I fight it, anything?" He asked, trying to get and information he could.

The captain sighed and scratched the back of his head. How was he going to explain this, they were from two different worlds. "Ok look, the thing you need to know about chakra is, well yes it is another kind of energy. In fact It's quite similar to reishi, but due to the fact that it involves physical energy as well as spiritual," pausing, he held up a hand and formed, what Ichigo could only assume to be a swirling ball of chakra, in the palm of his hand, "I've realized that it's much stronger. This here is technique I invented myself, I try not to use it unless absolutely necessary now days. I didn't want everyone knowing about it." he finished up as the energy dissipated from his hand.

Ichigo nodded in agreement to keep his secret, "So then, the hollows from your world are going to be twice as strong?" he asked, as if to clarify.

Nodding, Minato narrowed his eyes a bit and leaned in, "Look Ichigo, believe it or not, I know what your really like and I know that because of that I can trust you with what I'm about say." He said as if he were full of secrets, which he was.

Raising an eyebrow out of curiosity, Ichigo let out a sigh. He could tell that by the time this was all over he'd know so many secrets he may not be able to speak without getting someone in trouble. "I guess I shouldn't ask why so many secrets huh?" he mentioned in his normal, sarcastic somewhat arrogant tone.

"That would probably be best." Minato responded with a light chuckle at Ichigo's personality switching, "The truth is, even when I died I knew what was happening in the world I was from. For 16 years I watched the world through my son's eyes." He admitted with a small smile as he remembered him.

Ichigo immediately had a shocked expression on his face, what did he mean by watching the world through his son's eyes, was that even possible? "Sorry captain, but I don't quite follow."

Minato closed his eyes for a moment, thinking of how to explain. When he opened them again he reached over to his desk and grabbed photo of himself and Kushina that they had taken after finding each other again and looked at it, "In my world there are creatures known as the tailed beasts, to harness their power we seal them away in hosts called jinchuriki." He began slowly to be sure Ichigo followed. When he saw him nod he continued, "My wife was a jinchuriki and now that position has been passed to my son. I was the one who sealed the beast inside him, along with the last of my chakra. Because of that I've had a connection with him up until the emergency meeting last year." He finished with a somewhat sad sigh as he put the photo back.

Thinking back to the meetings they had in the previous year Ichigo did happen to recall Captain Namikaze being a bit distracted during the first one. "You don't have the connection anymore?" he asked, a bit intrigued.

"I had set a safety seal over the main seal. If it ever was removed incorrectly or to early I would be summoned to stop it. That happened during the meeting last year, because of that though, the little bit of chakra that was sealed within my son was used up, I no longer have the connection." he admitted with a small smile that somewhat said "you got me".

Ichigo just looked at the captain and felt a bit sorry for him, he was also starting to realize why he had so many secrets. Some were to keep him out of trouble, like this one, and some he was assuming were regrets, if people knew then there would be rumors. "I see, but, what does this have to do with my chakra question?" He finally asked, having held it off long enough.

The captain stood up and went over to open the window. As soon as it was completely open he grabbed a jug of ice water and dumped it outside as a small smirk crawled onto his face and a loud yelp was heard. "Kushina, mind telling me what your doing outside my window?" he said as a soaked, angry redhead stood up, wringing out her hair.

Ichigo couldn't help but laugh as the woman shivered and laughed herself. "I take it this is your wife." he said as he noticed something fly out the window. It didn't take long to realize it was the _now awake _butterfly, and smiled, _guess the little one wants to spread it's wings._ he thought to him self.

Kushina looked over at Ichigo after watching the butterfly flutter off and smiled, then at Minato, "Well I came by for a visit but then I heard some of you discussion, and want to say this right now Minato. Stop feeling sorry for yourself, we did what we had to and he turned out fine. He's a hero, or so he told me." she said in a somewhat quiet yell.

Minato just sighed, "That's true, but I still wish I could have been there for him. And from what I saw Sensei wasn't any help either." He argued.

Ichigo stood up and brushed off his hakama, "I know you too must be having a moment right now but you never answered my question captain, and now that the butterfly's awake I'm almost out of time." he interrupted, receiving a brief angry glare from Kushina that soon became a light smile.

Minato looked at Ichigo with a serious face again, "My son fought, or encountered all of the hollows that your about to fight from our world. They're strong and they each have special chakra abilities. Compared to that, the chakra I displayed is nothing. Chakra has natures, and some can extend further than that. To learn about it though, I suggest speaking to the 3rd seat of squad 6 or the lieutenant of squad 2." He suggested just before the butterfly came back in and landed on Ichigo's shoulder.

"I see, well thank you for all of your help. And don't worry, your secrets safe with me" Ichigo assured him as he turned to leave.

Kushina, who had now hopped in through the window, looked at the butterfly on Ichigo's shoulder with a sad face, "Lieutenant, you need to tell the child you know? don't make the same mistake we did."

Ichigo just stopped and sighed, "I will, when the times right, I will." and with that he walked out and made his way to the squad 6 barracks.

The butterfly gave a small chime, ~What do you need to tell me? Where are we going now?~ the child's curiosity was endless.

Shutting his eyes for a brief moment as he made his way down the hall he thought of how to answer. " We're going to visit your uncle." he finally said as he gave a small smile to the little question bug.

**Squad 6 barracks-**

The cool, late, winter breeze blew in the window of the noble captain's study, flipping the pages of the research book in front of him. He let out a small sigh as he flipped back to his page and went over to close the window. Just as he got to it however, he noticed his new brother-in-law had done so as well and was standing on the other side looking slightly worried. "What happened?" He questioned, hiding the small bit of worry he was obtaining himself.

Ichigo brushed off the question and scanned the room nervously, looking out for the slightest flutter, "The butterfly flew away a moment ago, I thought I saw it go in here." he said.

No longer worried, Byakuya turned to take a look around the room, "I didn't see anything but..." He stopped when he spotted a small flutter of the tips of white wings over by the book he was just reading. Seeing this left and brief sudden shock in his face that instantly vanished as always.

Also spotting this, Ichigo gave a soft sigh of relief, "Sorry, its real hyper when it feeds of my reishi and apparently very fast too." He explained as he saw the butterfly fly over rest on the ink jar. supposedly it liked resting on those.

Byakuya looked back to Ichigo, "I suppose that makes sense, your reishi is quite uncontrollable." he stated in his usual tone. "So what brings you here Ichigo?" he asked as he turned to go back and put the book away.

"I need to speak to your 3rd seat." Ichigo responded in the same tone as he watched the butterfly flutter circles around its uncle, jingling with whimsical laughter, and he could've sworn he saw a smile.

Glancing over at the other, Byakuya gave a light sigh, "I take it you plan to recruit him for your team." he said as he placed the book on the shelf. "He's out training in the feild right now."

The cool air blew once more, causeing some loose black strands to fly into Ichigo's face. Brushing it away and back behind his ear, he watched as the butterfly flew back over to him and landed on his shoulder. "Thanks for letting me know,I don't plan on recruiting him, I just need to talk to him."

Byakuya just took a seat at his desk and began reviewing his notes, "If that's all, then I would much like it if I could get back to work. I'll see you at home later tonight." He stated in manner that sounded more like a dismissal than a goodbye.

With that said, Ichigo shut the window as the captain was intending on doing himself and took his leave. As he got closer to the training field he had to start holding his balance again the strong sudden gusts of wind that would come all angle in front of him, causing his hair and scarf to blow everywhere uncontrollably. He held a protective hand up to his shoulder to keep the child safe as the force got stronger the closer he got to the field. "Something tells me these arn't just normal gusts of wind." he thought aloud, sensing a strong reishi from each blow.

~Otou san, what do you mean not normal wind?~ the child chimed, once again with the questions, though this time it was barely heard under the protection of Ichigo's hand.

Ichigo was just arriving at the field, realizing that he had been right when he saw that the third seat's training was causing the strong forces of wind. He had to be honest, he was impressed. He knew that the third seat was good but also knew that he was a rookie, this would be his first time meeting him. "Pardon me," he said as he carefully approached the boy. When the other stopped his drills and looked at him Ichigo noticed his were stragenely white and seemed void of life. "You're Neji Hyuuga, third seat of squad six correct?" He asked, finally bringing his hand down.

Stepping out of his stance, the boys eyes became normal and black in color, and a sealed zanpakutou appeared at his hip. "Yes, and your Lieutenant Ichigo Kuchiki of squad thirteen if I'm not mistaken." He answered, introducing himself. When Ichigo nodded he continued, "Congratulations Lieutenant." He added.

He couldn't tell if he was being congratulated on his marriage or the butterfly, so Ichigo simply gave a faint smile and thanked him. "That's a very interesting zanpakutou you have, would you mind if I asked you a few questions about how it works?" He asked, looking around at the cratered fields and broken boulders with serious eyes as the butterfly flew off to explore on it's own.

Neji could tell the lieutenant was wasn't just curious, he was worried, possibly scared. It was all clear to him, he could see the anxiety in his eyes as they scanned the field. Seeing that the butterfly was gone, he put it bluntly, "You aren't really here about mine, are you lieutenant. Lieutenant Abarai mentioned something about your recruiting a team, but you seem to nervous to be here for that. The next reason you could be asking is because my old enemies are the same as your new ones and you want to find out what to expect and how to fight them."

Looking back at Neji, Ichigo went into a brief, sudden shock. When he regained his composure he gave a light sigh, "Have you ever been told that you're a genius, Hyuuga?" He complemented in a half stoic, half sarcastic tone.

"Many times lieutenant." The boy answered with small smirk, "So what is is it you need to know?" he asked as the cool midwinter breeze blew past, cause a few black strands to brush his face.

Ichigo let his eyes scan craters in the feild and then looked back to Neji with narrowed eyes, "First, where your from, how common is it for damage like you've done here?" he asked, rather worried, but definitely serious.

"This damage was a result of my shikai, but there are others with similar strengths and others more-so" Neji explained in a professional tone that made Ichigo realize why Byakuya was so fond of him.

Pondering what had just been said, Ichigo let his eyes fall on Neji's sword, examining the strange energy it emitted from the opal colored, smooth, round hand guard. No doubt it was the so called chakra that he was investigating. Looking back up at the boy, he took note that his eye color had changed from white to pitch black. "Perhaps as an example, you could explain your shikai" he asked as the butterfly came back and landed on his finger that he had held out for it.

Neji gave a light smile at cheerful energy radiating from the spirit child and placed a hand on the hilt of his sword. "My family, we have a special bloodline skill called the Byakugan. For those in the head family, they keep it even in death. Those of us in the branch family however though," he paused and looked up as some birds flew by, "we lose it when we die." Looking back at the lieutenant Neji sighed, "My uncle was the head of our family, at one time he admitted that I was good enough to have been part of the main family, he even entrusted the safety of his daughter to me." As he spoke, his mind seemed to drift off to an old memory that almost seemed as if he was regretting something. "I died in a war, taking a lethal blow for both her and Naruto, our village hero. It's possible that could be the reason that through my shikai, my byakugan was returned to me."

It took some time for it to sink in but finally, Ichigo started to catch on to the point of the story, "Every zanpakutou is different, no two are ever the same." he thought aloud to himself as he glanced down to the side. He looked back up at the third seat, "So your the only one that has your family's abilities then, not even a hollowfied family member would have it." he stated, putting the pieces together. That gave them on advantage to some extent.

Nodding, Neji spoke again, "If they were from the branch family, yes. Though, I doubt many main family members would have ended up hollows anyway." Closing his eyes to focus for a moment, he took a deep breath and exhaled slowly before opening them again. "The byakugan allows us to see chakra, because of that our fighting style doesn't focus on physical blows, but instead, we attack the chakra system and internal organs directly by injecting our chakra into the enemy. That's what my shikai does, it lets me fight the way I used to. This damage is simply because the chakra blasts and defense training i was doing. I'm sure there will others that you'll face though from my world, with their own bloodline traits, I should warn you to take heed against those from the Uchiha clan. They can be quite deadly if you get trapped in there illusions, or fire for that matter." He explained as another breeze blew by.

Ichigo raised an eyebrow at the name Uchiha. He was never all that goo with names and faces but he knew that it sounded familiar. Brushing aside the thought, he nodded at the warning and information, "Well thank you for your time Hyuga." he said as he brought up a hand to shield his face from another cool late winter breeze, slightly stronger this time and causing the butterfly to flutter into Ichigo's scarf to stay snug and warm. He was about to leave when he had a sudden thought, "Oh, now that i think about it, you said you died in a war right? Then... is it possible you might be able to give me some information on a few hollows I was told about?" He asked as he brought his hand down.

Neji gave a nod as he motioned for ichigo to follow him to the barracks and talk inside out of the cold. "Its possible but it depends on who they are." he said as they walked.

**Evening at the Kuchiki estate- **

The newlywed's room was filled with nothing but jingling, ringing, and high pitch chimes that's sounded nearly like hollow screeches as the butterfly dashed around the room, emitting a strong, bright light. ~TELL ME! tell me tell me tell me!~ the child screamed as the tantrum went on.

Receiving death glares from Rukia and a migraine from the screeching, Ichigo jolted straight up to his feet and let his reishi flood the room even more-so then usual, to the point where the butterfly froze up and fell where was, caught by Rukia whom was struggling to not collapse herself. "Quiet." he practically demanded stern enough to tame a wolf. "I won't have you waking the whole family with you silly tantrum just because you don't get your way." He continued in the same tone, pulling back a little to make sure Rukia could move and the child wouldn't get crushed by the pressure.

Rukia, now able to stand on balanced feet, walked over to Ichigo and handed him the butterfly. "You really should listen to your father, be grateful he's not as bad as your uncle." she warned in a similar stern tone as the butterfly almost seemed to by panting in the palm of ichigo's hand. She then looked up at Ichigo, "And you need to stop procrastinating."

Ichigo sighed and lowered his reishi level down to normal, and he had to admit, he was prolonging the inevitable. "Alright, come on we're going for a little stroll in the garden." He said as he brought the butterfly to his shoulder and made his way out the door. When stepped outside, he turned to see Byakuya standing outside the room.

"I see I didn't need to come down here, you handled that quite well." Byakuya said as he walked by. "I do hope there wont be anymore tantrums little one. The next time your disciplined may be more harsh then this one." he added, speaking to the butterfly this time as he walked off.

The child stayed silent from intimidation as Ichigo continued to walk towered the garden. When Ichigo finally stopped, they were at the snow covered sakura tree and the only thing heard was the relaxing, repeating, metronome-like 'thunk' of the shishi-odoshi, and occasional splashes of Koi. Breaking the silence, the butterfly finally brought of the courage to speak again, ~Sorry...~ it said in a whisper, still afraid of getting nearly crushed again by Ichigo's spiritual pressure if it spoke to loud. ~I just don't understand why you wont tell me...~

Ichigo cut in, silencing the butterfly by pinching it's wing shut at the tips, gently. "I know, and you not understanding is the reason I wont tell you. I promise though, I will tell you, but later, when your ready to hear it." He explained as he sat down against the tree, and the bamboo struck the stone once again. "But that's not now." he added with a sigh as the calming sounds of the garden began to relieve him of the pain in his head.

A few more moments passed and the butterfly flew up to rest on Ichigo's shoulder, ~Otou san, can I ask you something else then?~ It asked in a whimsical child-like tone. When Ichigo nodded it continued, ~When you got mad, I couldn't move, and it hurt, and i felt very tired. And Okaa san almost couldn't stand.~ It uttered, seeming frightened at the thought.

Another tap was heard as a cool breeze blew past and Ighigo brought up a hand first shield the child from the wind and once it past, brought it up further to brush some stray hairs from his face. "You want to know what I did right?" He said as he shifted his gaze to the right to look at the now dimly glowing butterfly. It made sense that the child would sneak a snack after all of that, it must be exhausted. A small chime was given as a nod and Ichigo gave a light chuckle as he hid an inward smirk. "I released a small amount of my reishi, not enough to hurt you, or at least I thought, but enough to teach you lesson. Your mother's felt worse then that, which is why she didn't mind." He explained with a hint of pride.

~But, doesn't that tell people how strong you are? If that was just a little... Otou san you must be really strong.~ The butterfly chimed as it fluttered excitedly out in front of Ichigo.

Holding his index and middle fingers out as a perch, Ichigo smiled and nodded as the child landed on them. "What you felt was slightly more then what it was when I was alive. I've gotten stronger since then though."

~Otou san, will I be as strong as you? maybe?~ The child asked with hope.

Ichigo gazed at butterfly, bright and glowing with happiness, for a short while before giving another smile, "I have no doubt. As long as you have someone or something to protect, someone you love, you will always get stronger." He said in a soft voice that made certain the words sank in, as yet another tap was heard from the shishi-odoshi next to the edge of the other side of the pond next to tree.

**jingle~ start commercial**

**A/N: Ok so that took forever even for just the 2 days out of 5. Anyway i realized that its taking a while to write and I know I have waiting readers so I'm stopping here. BTW my beta reader is concerned that some of you wont catch on to some things so if at any time in the story you ever have a question about it, simply ask me in a review and i will explain. I can answer any question. XD well tell me your opinions id love to hear (read) them.**


End file.
